"The Last Rose" Oil on hardboard 5x7

When I take pictures, I usually think about what it might look like as a painting.  I took several pictures of leaves one day last fall... or perhaps the year before...  most of them I placed on the faded cypress wood of our front porch.  I actually managed to follow through and paint the oak leaves.  Jim claimed that painting before I was even half-way finished. The same day, I cut this rose off one of the bushes that Jim planted in the middle of our drive.  We have a triangle-shaped island of sorts, and we've tried several different things there, but the roses have looked the best.  They fill in early, bloom all summer, and keep on going until the first heavy frost says 'enough, already!'  This was one of the last roses I cut.