Saturday, October 8, 2011

Lemons & Light II - Still Life Step by Step


I just completed this painting as a practice with acrylics, for an upcoming workshop I'm teaching on October 23rd, at Monterey Center in Victoria BC  -  Contemporary Still Life in Acrylics. I've been painting all of my most recent Still Life paintings in oils, so I had to do a little practice to remember how to blend, layer colours, and create luminous light effects  Below is the step by step of the painting process:
















When painting Still Life, I like to do a quick value study first. Because I wanted to create a sun drenched light effect in the fruit and cloth, I used glazes of transparent colours. This allows the light to pass through the layers of paint to the white canvas below creating a luminous light effect. 







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13 comments:

  1. Stunning, and thank you so much for sharing your process!

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  2. Hello Claire,
    lemons are beautiful, all the painting is very well done.
    His technique, burning with sepia in the first session, after putting the colors in order to fill the screen, and finally add the details, it is the same one I learned from my old teachers. I confess that today I jump a few steps, but never lose sight of the safe prescription of good painting.
    Congratulations and a big hug

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  3. Claire this this is wonderful! The painting really does glow! Really great light striking the lemons and and onto the cloth. Gorgeous shadows! I love it!

    And thanks for showing your steps to complete the painting. Very informative and interesting.

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  4. I love this one Claire! The light really glows! Thanks for putting up the images of the work in process!

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  5. Thank you Kelly, Antonio, Virginia and Kristin. I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I needed to remind myself of acrylic painting techniques as I've been painting mainly in oils recently. I was pleased with the quality of light and feel like I'm ready to share in my first painting workshop.

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  6. It's so beautiful! I want to learn that technique of layering the light glazes of color over each other. Where can I learn that? Your work is amazing Claire! It's so vibrant and just leaps off the canvas to enchant and delight the viewer. I love to visit your blog.

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  7. You have definitely accomplished what you set out to do. Gorgeous painting!

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  8. Thank you Kathrine and Suzanne for your very kind comments!

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  9. I keep coming back to your blog and looking at these lemons. They are stunning! Great composition, great color combination. It's just beautiful!!

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  10. Thank you so much Carrie! I'm so humbled by all the positive comments you very talented artists have given me on this post. Thank you.

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  11. This is really a beautiful painting, Claire!! Love the vibrant color and shadows!! Perfect in every way.

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  12. This is a stunning painting, Claire. It's so vibrant and alive and glowy! Everything about it is perfect!

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  13. One of the reasons why I like visiting your blog so much is because it has become a daily reference I can use in order to learn new nice stuff. It's like a curiosities box that surprises you over and over again.

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