Tray of Orange Roses

Every china painter wants to paint roses, roses, roses.  In class the student is eager to paint their first rose-now.  It is a challeng to have them accept that they will have to do five or six pieces before they go on to tackle the rose.  I encourage them to get a fresh picked rose and pluck each and every petal while they study the construction of this romantic beauty.  Calling to your minds eye how the petals unfold into a lush fragrant beauty is important, if you are going to compose it, or construct it into the layered resemblance of a rose.  Many china painters will eye your work with suspicion to see if you have performed this painting feat with success. 

I have a granddaughter who loves the color orange, and she will receive this gem on just the right day.

The large tray is a wonderful piece to paint on.  First the purchased http://marylandchina.com

of this beautiful "blank" and five more of the same arrived at my studio, and I already new that it would hold orange roses. I wanted to do something different with the background.  I wanted rich red-brown leaves resting on the dark browns of the earth, next the roses had to have some contrast complimentary leaves of green.  I painted one layer of transparent oil based porcelain paint to show the placement of the roses, and this was fired to 1400+ degrees. Second painting is the second most exciting layer to go onto the platter, because the detail of the rose and the presence of the background, which will frame the roses, pulls the subject together into an organized composition and a hint of the beauty to come is fresh before the viewers or painters eyes.  This is fired again, at the same temperature for the same 1.5 hours, before the cone collapses and trigger the automatic turn-off to come down and shut down the kiln.  

I always fire at night, because I can go to bed, after kiln shuts down, and sleep while the kiln cools.  When I was firing up my kiln in the daylight hours, I would be tempted to take a peak into the kiln, which allows cool air to rush in and on some of those occasions I  would hear that loud crack of demolition and all my efforts would be lost.  Another reason it is wise to fire at night is the electric bill, the kilowatt hours are about 50% cheaper than during the day.  

                                                      13.5" x 9.75" Porcelain Tray c. 2007