I actually painted this back in mid-May: it’s on offer from Ali Kay‘s “Fresh Paint” membership, and I never got around to posting. I went with my own version of the background as I’m getting tired of copying teacher’s work, lol.
Floral
52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #19
This is the week 19 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. (I’ll get back to weeks 17 and 18 some other time). It’s called “Roses for Mom” and is based on a reference photo by Ann Dorsey. 6×6 canvas panel, toned in Naphthol Red.
I listened to the video of the class weeks ago — we’re already up to week 23 — and just used a grayscale printout of the photo as my reference. For the roses, the darkest red is Quinacridone Magenta, otherwise it’s just Naphthol Red with varying amounts of Titanium White.
This was a fun one to paint.

Black-Eyed Susans in a Vase
I based this 8×10 painting on a photo by Autumn Mott Rodeheaver on Unsplash.

Cactus in Bloom… After Teddi Parker
I have some epiphyte cactus flower photos I want to paint so I decided to try out copying a similar painting by Teddi Parker. This was done on an 8×8 gessoed wood panel.
Purple Tulips… after Ali Kay – Done!
I finally finished the purple tulips. It’s not really my style, but I had to try it. If I could do it all over again, I’d either dilute the gesso with some water and use the biggest brush I could find (to minimize brush strokes / ridges, and I’d probably do it in at least a 10×10 size.
The finished version is on the left. Where it looks black, it’s not. That’s dioxazine purple. Also, I started out with a straight line between the table and the wall, but messed up with my salmon-colored paint. I’ll need to adjust either with the bluish-purple (likely) or the orange/ salmon color.
Purple Tulips… after Ali Kay — in progress
I haven’t worked on this project in days, because frankly I got a little bored. Too paint-by-numberish. I like this artist’s style — more here — for pet portraits and people, and am thinking about signing up for her “Fresh Paint” school when it reopens. But I wanted to see what “Fresh Paint” might be like by purchasing this lesson. We get the templates (which I like!) and then the color “recipes”. Her style is to use (more or less) complementary-color underpainting in pieces (not just one overall underpainting / toning). She also uses Masonite or wood panels that have to be gessoed first, rather than canvas or paper.
Also, I’m using an 8×8 panel and in all honesty it would be better if I were doing a 12×12 or even 20×20. (Those templates are also available as part of the class.)
Anyway, this is what I have so far, and I’ll try to finish it some time this week.
Red Rose.. After Carol Marine
This red rose is from Carol Marine’s works on the Daily PaintWorks website. I wanted more practice with roses. I drew this one out first on a 6×6 birch panel.
I started with alizarin crimson, and then mixed it with either yellow, white, or dark blue to get the different red shades. The olive green leaves and stem were created with yellow and black. There’s one section of teal blue that really should be the purplish shadow color, there right in the center of the painting.

52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #11
I can’t believe we’re already through week 11, almost 25% through this year challenge. Time flies! This is the week 11 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. The name is “Roses are Fair”. (In my case, I should say, “Roses are Abstract”, ha-ha!)
6×6 panel, gray underpainting from a Raw Umber-Titanium White blend.
I definitely need more practice with roses!

Acrylic University: Painting Flowers
I painted this bouquet of roses from Jed Dorsey’s online class at Acrylic University. I’m fairly happy with the roses, not so much with the reflections in the vase. But this was fun!
9×12 stretched canvas. I copied Dorsey’s violet underpainting, but I don’t think I’d use that color next time. The violet color is truer in the half-painted image than in the initial drawing out image.














