Red & White Velvet

“If you can paint a rose so that you feel it will tremble in a breeze, you need never be daunted by the texture of human skin.” Those words were spoken to me by my first teacher, Sigismund Ivanowski. That he said them during the Great Depression, perhaps to justify our having roses to paint week and week instead of human models who must be paid, in no way denies their validity. I regard roses as the most lovely and most difficult subjects and I will strive to meet Ivanowski’s impossible challenge as long as I paint. Roses have both a firm structure that requires careful drawing and a delicate character that calls for loose, almost casual painting. And they wilt so fast!