Still Life with Pears

Where's the Brie?  8 x 8  Oil  -  Available at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Hello everyone! Yes, it's been quite a while since I posted. I'm at a very busy time in my life and I'm choosing what I can fit into each day, so unfortunately posting hasn't made the list lately, but let's see how I do over the next while. I have to say I've missed all of you supportive artists out there, and especially seeing what all of you have been producing. There is so much talent and beautiful artwork on your blogs. I especially want to thank Hilda Muxo who has kindly checked in on me more than once, to make sure everything was okay and to say she missed me. How special is that when we've never formally met?!

This small painting is one of three juried into the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's Summer Small Works Show. There are over 80 local artists showing in all genre's and styles. It's always a wonderful show well supported by the art lovers of  Victoria.

My husband just retired, and to celebrate we are going on a two month trip including Hong Kong, Australia and Indonesia. I'm just in the process of trying to decide what to take for creating art while I'm there. Because we're going to be moving around and flying quite a bit, I'm thinking ink and watercolour in a sketch pad. I haven't done ink and watercolour in hmmm.....more than 30 years!! But that medium used to be one of my favourite means of artistic expression, so I think I'll try it out.

Still Life with Pears

Tea and Tonic - AGGV Summer Small Works Show

Tea and Tonic  Oil on Linen on Board  8 x 10  $300 SOLD

In my last post I talked about a workshop I took with Tanya Bone. This painting is one I did following her workshop, focusing on edges, brushwork and a painterly style. I was quite pleased with the outcome and also because it has been selected into the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Summer Small Works Show. The show runs July 12 - Sept 5, in Massey Hall, and features beautiful small and affordable pieces by many of your favourite Victoria artists. Be sure to check it out when you're in the neighbourhood. 

Tonight I attended the Artists Reception for the Mystery Show at Red Art Gallery. This is such a fun event! There are 40 artists and 40 works. All works are 10 x 10 and priced at $295. The mystery is who painted what? No names appear on the front of the paintings. There is a lottery style draw to determine who gets first pick and so on. When your number is called you have 60 seconds to put a red dot on the painting of your choice. Last year this event was a huge success and a great patron pleaser, and this year promises to be just as much fun. I'll post my mystery painting after the show.

Tea and Tonic - AGGV Summer Small Works Show

Still Life with Starfruit

This is a step by step of a commission that I just completed for a client who is collecting a series of these long narrow still life canvases. I had never thought of painting starfruit because it wasn't a fruit I was at all familiar with, however, it has beautiful form and created an interesting shadow along the edge of the bowl. My client requested this particular cloth, which is an Egyptian Prayer Rug, and the plate is Turkish. It made a nice exotic combination.

 

Because the plate had white in it, the cloth was creamy white, and the starfruit was basically white with touches of yellow and green, I had to evolve into how to create a vibrant colourful painting, as my client and I both love colour. So I started with something I know well - grapes.

I started adding colour and pumped up the vibrancy of the star fruit by bringing out the yellow and green.

I decided at this point that the contrast of the shadow shapes in the cloth were far too strong, (I was working from a few photographs as well as some of it from life) so as I changed the colour of the cloth, I also softened the shadow effect.

This photo was taken inside on my easel and the colours appear very cool. I slept on it and decided to soften the contrast slightly and warm up the lights a bit.

Here is the final painting which I shot outdoors in the shade. The colours came out much warmer here. I felt it was a very busy painting with the patterns in the cloth and plate, so for compositional purposes I softened the colours in the fabric above the plate. 

I find commissions very challenging because they are someone else's inspiration rather than your own. In the end, this painting became one of mine, but I had some moments of struggling. I really like the person I was painting this for, and concentrated on created a thing of beauty for this special client. 

When you paint commissions how do become inspired by the content if it's not necessarily something you would choose to paint?

Still Life with Starfruit

Summer Citrus

Summer Citrus  Acrylic on Canvas  16 x 16  $500

This still life was painted from a series of photos I shot in my garden last summer. I loved the light reflections on the glaze of the pitcher, the bowl and the fruit. There was a lot of light play on the tablecloth as well. I enjoyed interpreting the various components in the colour scheme of blue and yellow, carried through in the tablecloth, and the fence and foliage in the background. I think the final effect is quite harmonious.

My Tuesday night Still Life Painting Class had a go at this image as well. They had a photograph to take home and work on for a few weeks, between our painting from life studies each week. I was very pleased and impressed with the results. Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of their work, but they're a bit shy anyhow. 

I'm getting ready to hang a show this upcoming Sunday April 1st, for the Oak Bay Artists Society. A group of sixteen of us, is having a show at the CAC Gallery at Cedar Hill, April 1 - 8. This is a preview show for the Oak Bay Artists Spring Studio Tour, taking place on April 14 & 15, 12 noon - 4:30pm. Both shows feature some wonderfully talented artists and a host of mediums. If you're in the area, drop by and say hi! We'd love to see you!

Summer Citrus

Any Title Ideas?

I managed to take a few hours today to finish off this painting, while our visitors went downtown and did a few things. I'll probably make some minor adjustments once I've had time to live with the painting a bit. I don't know what to call this one, so if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Here I am in my backyard painting in the shade. Yes! we're having a sunny day! Maureen the winner of the Rainy Day Painting Draw, from the Art Gallery Paint-In came by and picked up her prize today, the painting l'Aperitif. She said she felt so lucky to have won the painting, that she almost went out to buy a lottery ticket. :-)

Any Title Ideas?

Opulence - Step by Step

'Opulence' Original Acrylic on Canvas 30 x 30

I'm back! It seems like forever since I posted and talked to everyone. I was sick with a cold, then went out of town to visit my parents, and then my daughter came into town to visit us. It's been great spending the time with family and having so many laughs!

I think I'm finished this painting, but I'll need to live with it for a few weeks to really know. Because of the time lapse since I started posting the Step by Step, I decided to post them all together so you get the effect. There's a bit of glare in the upper right hand corner, probably because I used some glazing fluid and it has a bit of sheen. Once I've decided that it's finished, I'll varnish it so the finish is consistent.

Now has this ever happened to you? When I went to make this blog post, my image upload window wouldn't let me upload any pictures. I am a bit technologically challenged so things have to be pretty basic for me. I've been checking my 'cache' and my 'cookies' and updating Firefox and finally googling how to revert to the 'old editor' on my blog. Phew!

Opulence - Step by Step

Still Life Workshop

Second Still Life Painting from Workshop

It's taken me a while to photograph this painting as I've been a bit challenged with light (or the lack of it) and rain. Yesterday there was a brief moment when the rain stopped and I rushed out onto the deck and managed to grab this image before the rains started again. :-) This is the second painting I did at the Still Life Workshop last weekend. We had about two hours to complete each piece, allowing our instructor Keith Hiscock, to come around to each of us a few times, giving us feedback.

Keith acknowledged that critiquing is very valuable but that we don't always have someone there to critique our work, so he recommended regular self critiques. To do this, he suggested choosing an artist whose work we admire, selecting an aspect of their painting skills that we would like to develop in our own painting skill set, and work on that aspect. It's not to copy their style, but to understand and develop things like brushwork etc.  After the completion of each painting, we should do a comparison of our work against theirs, to gauge our improvement. The skill and artist should keep changing as we improve our skill set. I think most of us do this on a casual basis, but by specifically choosing a skill for improvement, focusing on that, and doing regular comparisons to monitor development, results will be much greater. I think this an excellent and easy to do tool for self development, and  feel quite excited to get started on this.

Still Life Workshop

Red and Green

Original Oil on Canvas Panel  6 x 6  
Currently Showing at the Christmas Small Works Show
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

I just love the combination of these two complimentary colours, red and green. I spotted these grapes in the fruit bowl and quickly put them in my favourite green bowl and painted away. My husband was a bit concerned that once again he couldn't eat the fruit he had just brought home, but I managed to complete the painting in time for dessert.

Red and Green

Backlit Grapes

Backlit Grapes Acrylic on Linen SOLD

I had a great time painting this one. The grapes were so translucent and the backlighting really shone through them. I also really like the red/green effect with the colouring. This is a little Moroccan bowl I have from our travels, and the glaze has a great reflective quality.

Backlit Grapes