Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. ----- Ernest Hemingway

Pink Roses and a Little Cottage

> Welcome. I am so glad that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in, relax and have a cup of tea. Today we are going to paint a little cottage with a picket fence and pink roses. First, let's leave my garden and take my studio assistant, Bentley, for a walk looking for inspiration.


Finding Inspiration . . . . . .



























Here . . . . .











There . . . .
















Everywhere . . . . .





I loved the blue windows and door on this cottage and decided to paint the door and shutters on my cottage blue.















This large cottage reminds me of a real English Cottage. Note the green bushes and hedges around the cottage.






We will paint lots of green bushes around our cottage.



I like the brick sidewalk and will paint one leading to our little cottage.
















Now that we have seen lots of cottages and climbing pink roses, let's go back to my studio and paint a cottage together. We will paint a small cottage to make it easy for beginners. I sketched out a little cottage with my paints (I use Liquitex acrylic) on a 9X12 canvas. You are welcome to copy my painted sketch. Note I put lots of green bushes around the cottage similar to the ones we saw in the above photographs.





Sky is painted with Prussian blue mixed with lots of white. I base coated the door and shutters with darker Prussian blue and painted a brick sidewalk. I paint in the French Impressionist style and do not paint a lot of detail. I added lots of colors to the roof and painted a lighter color where the sun is hitting the roof.





Next I painted a vine around the fence and base coated the roses with red. Always paint dark to light and put in your darks first. I also added roses around the door and on the roof. I started putting a lighter color over the dark red roses on the roof so you can see how to build up the color. Add some dark green under the roses on the fence and house - this will create the depth. Put different shades of green around the cottage for your bushes - then add touches of lighter green on top of the bushes where the sun light is hitting the bushes. Add darker blue to the top of the door and shutters - this will create the look of a shadow as the roof and roses will cast a shadow on the areas right underneath them.









The completed painting - notice I went back and added some white highlights to some of the roses where the sunlight is hitting them. The painting is so small it does not have a lot of detail on the roses - the Impressionist style gives the impression of roses without the detail. You can paint with a small brush and add as much detail as you want to - it is just a matter of the style you like. For me, light, soft edges and loose edges are my style.


Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. As soon as I find Lilacs at the flower market we will paint them.
Next week we are going to Florida to visit "The Children's Garden" that my sister is bringing back to life after the big freeze in Florida this past winter.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

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