18 Artists&Illustrators
Fresh Paint
Rosso Emerald Crimson
With its delicate red flowers and matching
front door, the little house in Rosso Emerald
Crimson’s most recent oil painting looks like
it could have been plucked from the pages
of a fairy tale. Yet it’s actually a real scene
that the Portfolio Plus member spotted
while cycling around a deserted London
during lockdown.
“London was so quiet,” the Stoke
Newington-based artist explains. “I took
advantage of this and came across the most
beautiful settings. I was really blown away by
all the beautiful doors and flowers, it really
inspired me.”
A contender on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of
the Year series last year, Rosso deviatedfrom her usual figurative work for Red Door
with Red Roses, using it as an opportunity to
explore light and shadow. “I entertain myself
with this kind of painting, where I don’t
necessarily have to be so precise,” she says.
“For me it’s a way to relax and enjoy painting
for the sake of painting.”
Before committing paint to canvas,
Rosso always completes a colour study
first and it was a relatively straightforward
job for this artwork. “It was mostly about
the shadows,” she recalls. “I tried out some
different variations and eventually ended
up with a bluish grey.”
As the artist was working with such strong
primary colours, she chose to paint in the
direct, alla prima style. “I was very focused,”she says. “It was like a one-stroke painting,
so on each area I used almost pure colour.”
“It was very saturated from the beginning,
so I knew it wouldn’t need extra work,”
she adds. “This is also why I stuck to the
subject: because I wanted [the process] to
be relaxing, I wouldn’t have to worry about
going back to finish it.”
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LEFT Rosso
Emerald Crimson,
Red Door with
Red Roses, oil on
canvas, 18x24cm