"Heaven on Earth"

(double hand-painted museum mats in floral frame (click image to see it larger)

"Heaven on Earth Rose," 2 3/8" x 2 7/8", (shown actual size), egg tempera on vellum

$600 + $15 shipping/handling ~ on Etsy

In honor of my late father's birthday in March, I'm offering for sale the completed and framed miniature painting of the floribunda rose called "Heaven on Earth."

a little more progress.....

Kinda creeping along on this, it's mainly the leaves I worked on and hopefully in another few days it's a final post. I'm also hoping to install my new Photoshop software tomorrow, so I'm very excited to try it out!

What's Next

"Heaven on Earth Rose," (Step 3), egg tempera miniature on vellum

I'm back online, and I have several things going on. Above is my latest rose miniature as it looked when last posted and I'll have some progress to show you on this painting soon. I'm installing and adjusting to some new software, and it's tricky, but I know that some important improvements will come out of this effort.

I'm also working very hard to finalize four of my large paintings, and begin several new ones to be included in my portfolio which will be submitted to galleries who may represent my work. You can follow my progress with this on my spiritual portraits blog: Grander Joy of Spirit in Art

"Heaven on Earth Rose," Step 3

"Heaven on Earth Rose," in progress, shown at actual size

Another progress update after two more sessions on the rose. The hardest areas to blend in egg tempera are open areas, or areas with a shadow that has to fade into a light area. In this painting that is happening in several of the outer petals, and I am still working on evening out that blend.

Flowers are a great challenge because they are so subtle in the variations of tones and colors petal to petal. Egg tempera is a perfect medium for subtle variations because of what can be accomplished with transparent glazing and translucent scumbling.

Step 1 of "Heaven on Earth Rose," and What's Next

"Heaven on Earth Rose," (in progress), 2 3/16" x 2 5/8", egg tempera on Kelmscott vellum

Shell Frame for "Heaven on Earth Rose"

the sketch for my next miniature, "The Piano Recital: It's Mary's Turn"

Sometimes when the object being painted is so beautiful, it's really nice to be able to zero in on it more, and the rose I have started painting is hard to resist for a close-up view. When this is done in miniature painting, it can wind up being miniature in the size of the painting itself, and miniature in its level of detail, but not at 1/6th of life scale, and this is sometimes called an 'atypical' miniature. "Heaven on Earth Rose" is an example of this.

"Heaven on Earth" is the species name of this variety of Floribunda rose, which I photographed from the first rose bush I planted in my father's memory. I've planned for it to be framed with this pink shell frame, and when it's finished, I will post it for sale exclusively on this blog, but since two more major miniature shows are fast approaching it will be completed in my spare time as I go forth.

Next I'll be starting the miniature painting of "The Piano Recital: It's Mary's Turn."

This post also marks my one year anniversary with The Ruby Slippers blog, since my first post began Sept. 4th, 2008.