The painting was completed in one setting, impressionist style, as a teaching demonstration, using Maimari Puro oils on 8" x 10" canvas panel board and only three tubes of colour.

I have not signed this work as yet, as I like to spend some time looking at it before the final brush strokes go in. 

Primary YellowPrimary RedPrimary BlueTitanium White​ Can you pick, straight away, which colour I altered from nature? I titled this painting Roses from a Friend as they were a gift to me from one of my students. The students watched me demonstrate this one step-by-step. As I have said before, one of the focuses of this lesson is to think of tone and shape more than colour. You can alter the colour, and the painting will still work as long as the light and shade pattern is correct.

I illustrated my point that it doesn’t matter if you change a colour, as long as the light-and-shade pattern is correct, by changing the leaf colour from bright green to tones of gray.

Colour hue isn’t all that relevant as long as it is harmonious. In the next photo, the image of the painting has been colour-enhanced using a computer photo program to create blue-green leaves. The painting isn’t better or worse for doing that; it is just a different colour. The success of the painting is in the mastery of painting the correct tonal values in the correct shape and proportion to each other, or in having mastered tonal painting.