Keeping Up with the Roses

My rose bushes have started their first big bloom of the year (with no help from me) and despite a crazy week, I’ve tried to do a little sketching of the first two that were ready to cut. This is the second rose that bloomed, just picked (above) and a day after its peak (below), which I missed sketching yesterday because I just needed to sit in front of the TV last night and veg out. Oh well.

The roses above have a lovely fruit punch scent, which is why I bought the bush originally.

Here is the first rose of the season (below) from a different bush. I struggled with the sketch and the whole time was annoyed by the scent, trying to figure out what it reminded me of.

I finally figured it out: an old brand of women’s deodorant that smelled kind of gross after it was worn for awhile. I’m overly sensitive to some smells and I’m guessing I might be allergic to them; that they smell differently to me than how they smell to others.

My sister used to wear a perfume called Anais Anais that I thought smelled exactly like damp, moldy dog kibble. There are trees that when in bloom smell (to me) exactly like barf and give me an instant headache if I breathe when I walk by them. Could it just be me? Or do companies really make perfumes that smell like kibble and people plant trees that smelly pukey?

And back to the roses…doing these quickie sketches has stirred up the creative juices to do some “real” watercolor rose paintings, taking more time and care with the drawing and painting to accurately capture the interesting variations in color, shapes and patterns of the petals.