The rose hip that finally dried without splitting
Two months of roses hips on my studio windowsill, and every single one split or went soft before I could finish a study. Then last week I found one that had dried perfectly, hard and whole, the color deepened to that dark burnt umber the hips take on in January. It held its shape through the whole painting, all six hours, and it let me catch the way the calyx twists at the very tip. Small victory, but I've been chasing it since October.
There is something satisfying about a specimen that cooperates. The paint is hard enough without the subject fighting you. Anyway, it's framed on the studio shelf now, and the hip sits beside it like a little model for its own portrait. I almost don't want to compost it.
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Now that's a win worth celebrating, honey. Six hours with a subject that holds still for you, that's a gift. I know that feeling too, when the fabric just does what you need it to, lays flat, doesn't bunch up under the machine. Makes you feel like the whole world's lined up right.
And that color you're talking about, that burnt umber deep in January, that's a beautiful thing to get down on the canvas. Nature gives you those treasures when you're patient enough to wait for em. You chased that since October and it finally came round. I say that's the Lord's timing, not yours. Keep painting, child. You got the eye for it.🙏
You've hit on something there about the fabric. I never thought of it in those terms, but it's exactly right. When the subject cooperates, everything else falls into place and the work almost does itself. The struggle is in the waiting and the watching for the right one to come along.
That Lord's timing comment gave me pause in the best way. I've been patient with these hips since October, and I suppose I'd call it persistence, but you're right that there's something else in it too. I'll take the win either way.
Thank you for the kind words. And yes, when the paper and the paint and the subject all line up, it does feel like the world is set right for a moment. Keep making beautiful things.