A Bee in Mable Ringling's Rose Garden.

My husband surprised me with a visit to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art recently.  I loved seeing the Tibbals 3,800 square-foot miniature circus model, loved exploring the grounds, the Ringling House, the art museum (very top-notch), but - much to my husband's dismay - I do believe my favorite thing was zipping about in Mable Ringling's Rose Garden.  To discover roses in bloom in winter, was for me - heavenly.  It wasn't enough to photograph the roses... of course I had to sniff them too.  Ah, the Outrageous, the Fragrant Cloud, the Ambridge, and the Windermere offered scents I would gladly roll in.

An observer in Mabel's Rose Garden - with a patina of dirt and mold in all the right places.

This rose reminds me of Vreeland's search for the perfect red.

Many of the paintings inside the museum are from the late Gothic and early Renaissance periods.  My husband interrupted my bee-like activities to hurry me inside to see the artwork, but my mind, heart, and nose were still with the roses.  Gazing at Ludovico David's The Judgment of Paris, I studied Athena's drapery and thought of its similarity to the rose I had photographed earlier... the rose which appears in the first and last photos above.  I think David must have achieved this red through the technique of glazing.  It's not a single, even layer of red - but a red achieved with many layers.  How nature achieves this red - I don't know.
All photographs Toile La La.