Rose by Ken Powers
Ken Powers

Rose by

I just felt like painting a quick rose today! There isn’t anything too special to describe other than this particular one was growing in front of my house and had a fantastic aroma. I enjoyed pumping up the contrast and accentuating the highlights and shadows a bit for effect. For areas of the background, I laid down a highly granulating paint and just as it was beginning to dry, saturated the paper with water to cause some interesting runs of pigment. The Arches paper really helped accentuate this effect. The piece is painted with Rublev 18th century reproduction watercolor paint and Winsor & Newton watercolor paint on Arches 140# cold-pressed paper and is 14″×10.25″ in size.

Featured in Art Up Close group in September 2010.

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Tags

botanical, floral, florals, flower, flowers, ken, powers, rose, watercolor, watercolour

Comments

  • Marsha Elliott
    Marsha Elliottover 1 year ago

    You did a great job on this! I’ve tried painting roses before & failed miserably so I’m in awe of anyone who can pull It off as well as you have. Just beautiful!

  • Thanks Marsha! This one was a quickie so I didn’t spend quite as much time defining things. Had to squeeze it into the schedule though!

    – Ken Powers

  • kamaljeet kaur
    kamaljeet kaurover 1 year ago

    Fav for me……Ken you are just too good with roses!!!! love d shades n depth created here :)

  • Thanks Kamal! I appreciate it and thanks for the fav as well!

    – Ken Powers

  • allicata
    allicataover 1 year ago

    Love the gorgeous textures and defined petals! Soft and Wonderful work, Ken.;-)

  • Thanks Allison! I had to squeeze this one in during the kid’s naps. My son (4 years old) woke up early and wanted to help so I let him drop some of the background pigments in. He only took a short nap today so that really cut into the available time to finish this one.

    – Ken Powers

  • Maree Clarkson
    Maree Clarksonover 1 year ago

    Beautifully done Ken, great contrasts!

  • Thank you Maree! I appreciate it!

    – Ken Powers

  • Lynda Robinson
    Lynda Robinsonover 1 year ago

    And what a beautiful job you did! I can almost smell it!

  • Thank you Lynda! You are too kind! This was a fun one to do.

    – Ken Powers

  • EarthquakeBee
    EarthquakeBeeover 1 year ago

    I cant paint a rose… this is so beautiful, feels like you can touch it. Love the velvet effect.. and the background works perfect :)

  • Thanks Bea! It seemed like really darkening the shadow areas completely changed the painting’s vibe. This was a fun one!

    – Ken Powers

  • JennyArmitage
    JennyArmitageover 1 year ago

    Lovely.

  • Thank you Jenny! That is very nice of you to say!

    – Ken Powers

  • bevmorgan
    bevmorganover 1 year ago

    What a beauty, Ken. This is a perfect rose in every way. I always enjoy your choice of background colours. They work so well.

  • Thank you very much Bev! I appreciate you taking a look!

    – Ken Powers

  • Junior Mclean
    Junior Mcleanover 1 year ago

    Very nice!!!

  • Thanks Junior! This was a really fun one to do!

    – Ken Powers

  • Blended
    Blendedover 1 year ago


    in Art Up Close, Congratulations!

  • Thank you very much! I am honored you chose to feature this work!

    – Ken Powers