Joy

"Joy" - 8"x5"

Finished!

I've been working on this rose as a commission since the start of the year. Once again, I decided to challenge myself with yellow and, as usual, yellow put up one heck of a fight. See my earlier post on yellow to learn more.

The primary yellow here is MaimeriBlu's Permanent Yellow Lemon (PY175).

Benzimidazolone Lemon is considered lightfast, which is why I chose it for this rose. It's difficult to find a transparent cool yellow that is lightfast, meaning it won't fade or shift to an unsaturated gray after prolonged exposure to light.

The other pigments I used were W&N's Permanent Rose and Cobalt Blue.

This is the second painting I've done of late where I've confined myself to a traditional triad of Blue, Red and Yellow. As was the case for "Red Shed," it's hard for me to work in this way. Cobalt Blue always seems so gummy when I use it for shadows -- and since the yellow is so dominant here, I felt as though I was fighting the little grainy flecks in every dark area.

In contrast, using the Lemon Yellow with Permanent Rose made for brilliant orange mixes...the best I've seen in any of my paintings, in fact. So this mixing discovery is one positive I will take from this project.

I hope my client enjoys the painting!