Cooking With Colour

Cooking With Colour  Oil on Canvas 8 x 8  SOLD

I knew it was going to be an explosion of colour, but I just had to do it!! I bought  these cute little bowls in Mexico and as I have a special love for hand painted pottery from around the world, I had to incorporate these new little beauties into a painting. I've painted and sold still lifes with plates and bowls from Provence, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia, Turkey and Mexico, so other people must also love hand painted pottery too. So here's some more Mexico and this time it's red hot! I hope you like it.

Cooking With Colour

Three Persimmons

Three Persimmons  Oil on Linen  8 x 8  SOLD

I've been busy in Vancouver with my parents recently so I haven't had a chance to practice the techniques that I learned in Mike Svob's workshop. However, I've been practicing thumbnails, trying to come up with different designs for the same image, and seeing which one is most dynamic, for a future painting. This sounds elementary and easy, but it's actually quite difficult to rethink a photo considering adding gradations,  simplifying the shapes and creating a pattern of three values - light, midtone and dark. If you can get through this step and feel really good about one or two thumbnail designs, the next step of painting from your thumbnail by matching the values, is really freeing. A bit scarey but freeing! I highly recommend you try it. 

This is a little painting a did a while back. I received this beautiful table runner as a gift. It's made from recycled Sari's. The persimmons added to the exotic theme, but it was really all about painting the beaded and sequined fabric. I love exotic fabrics...

Three Persimmons

More Still Life Step by Step

So where have I been this year? Why am I blogging so infrequently? Well...I’ve been busy with family. My parents are both quite elderly and living in Vancouver, and I’ve been travelling back and forth quite a bit, and will  continue to do so. Add to that my full time Display Design work, my art shows, my own family, the house and garden etc. and something had to give. So blogging has slowed right down, and some months painting has as well. However, I’m fortunate to live close enough to visit my parents to help them out, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. So please accept my infrequent blog posts and please send me a comment when I post, because I love to hear from all of you and appreciate the feedback.

This is another commission piece for one of my collectors. There is a series of these long narrow still life pieces coming together. They are all 24" by 12" on Gallery Wrap canvas with the image wrapping around. I applied some texture to the canvas first with modelling paste to create some energy and movement, and to add another dimension to the painting. Starting with a value study in Transparent Red Iron Oxide, I then built layers of transparent or semi-transparent paint in the fruit. I like to use these transparent colours, because the light can pass through right to the white of the canvas, creating an inner glow in the fruits.. 

The fruit bowl is cobalt blue glass with some rings of texture running around it. I started to build the reflective quality of the glass, and the beaded table center underneath.

Everything but the table cloth is now fully painted.

I completed the table cloth, added depth and colour to the shadows, and added more texture and colours to the beaded table center. Again like in my last post, this was a commission for a strip out of one of my existing original paintings, so I used my previous advise and tried to see the image with fresh eyes, trying not to ask my myself how I painted parts of the image last time. For me that's important in order to enjoy the process and not second guess myself. I have one more painting left to complete in this series of six and this next one features star fruit, something that I've never painted before, so I'm looking forward to that!

More Still Life Step by Step

Sweet Treat

Original Oil on Linen 8 x 8

I had so much fun with the first painting of Bartlett pears that I decided to do another. I'm pleased with the glow again, and prefer the looseness of the brushstrokes in this one.


Tonight I'm going to the Artists' Reception for the CNIB Eye Appeal Art Fundraiser, at Crystal Garden. I donated a painting to this worthy cause. As visual artists it's hard to imagine a life with either limited or no sight. I hope the fundraiser is a great success. The artists' event will be an entertaining evening, chatting with many of Victoria's artists.

Sweet Treat

Melon and Berries

Original Oil on Linen 11 x 14 - SOLD

I recently participated in a workshop on traditional still life and wanted to reinforce the skills I learned, so I set up this composition and painted it from life. It took several sittings to complete, and I had to keep lifting the setting, which I'd made on top of a wooden pop crate, off of my dining room table and placing it elsewhere while we ate. The cantaloupe was wrapped and put back in the fridge several times. Because of this the folds in the fabric kept changing and the melon started shrinking and the berries were all wrinkled and dried up. Instead of hindering me, I realized that it aided me in painting from an emotional place and adding what I felt was needed for the picture making rather than being tied to the subject. I was able to concentrate on edges, and to adjust the shadows and highlights as I felt added to the painting.

I've mentioned a few times that I would like to loosen up my painting style and create more visible brushwork. Hmmm....It does look a little tight, but in real life it seems to fall somewhere in the middle. I'm thinking of entering it in an upcoming show. What are your thoughts?

Melon and Berries

Melon and Mandarines

Original Oil on Linen  8 x 8  NFS

Here is the last still life from my workshop. I actually finished painting it at home and enjoyed taking a little more time to think through some of the decisions. Although I'm happy with the outcome, it's a bit tighter than I'm attempting to paint these days, as it's a Christmas present and the recipient will prefer that style. I really enjoyed the workshop with Keith Hiscock (find him on facebook), who has motivated me to shake things up a bit and remember to put the art into what I'm doing, by looking at the canvas instead of the set up once I have enough information. When I paint landscapes or cityscapes, I spend a lot more time putting the art into it - editing out, changing the position of things to create a better composition, changing the amount of light coming through the trees. It seems that still lifes really pull me into a literal place. I think it comes from trying to nail that value and hue with minimal brushstrokes and then the next thing I realize that I've become chained to the set up. I guess there are no compositional or lighting changes that need to happen as I've created the the set up to my liking, so the art part becomes all about edges and brush work.  What about you? Do you find yourself being more literal with still lifes, and if not, how do you work your painting to avoid it?

Melon and Mandarines

Country Road

Country Road  18 x 24  $475

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I blocked in the main colour pattern, concentrating on the rhythmic flow of  the branches, as well as establishing the tree trunks. These masses were then broken down into more varied tones and temperatures. My focal point is where the light hits the end of the road so I worked on establishing the light and dark contrast in that area. I used a number of greyed colour tones to make the more saturated colours pop. Because of all the layering of colours I paid close attention to the arial perspective, so that it layered back in space properly.

I drew in a few guidelines in burnt umber and started to block in the abstract colour shapes. Here everything goes in as a flat field of colour without creating shadows and form. I'm concentrating on the abstract shapes. I coloured the canvas with a sepia tone which I left to show through in small patches throughout the painting, creating colour harmony.

Country Road

Clementines

Clementines Original Oil Painting on Linen 8 x 8 Framed - SOLD

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I had a very slow start on this one. I wiped it off twice before finally deciding to sit down, thereby changing my viewpoint and avoiding drawing the opening of the pitcher. Some days you just can't make it happen! I ended up liking this composition better and am pleased with the outcome. I'm working on more painterly brushstrokes, which I think I achieved on the pitcher and the cloth. The clementines ended up a bit tighter, but you have to start somewhere!

This painting is of one of my favourite belongings - a Tuscan pitcher. I bought it at a flea market in a little village in the Southwest of France. The woman who sold it to me, told me a wonderful story of how she came to own it. A flea market vendor in Tuscany was berating the crowd for being so cheap and not buying anything from him on this particular day. He held up the pitcher and kept lowering the price until finally he offered it for free, at which point she stepped forward and accepted it. The irony is that she didn’t pay it forward, she charged me for it, and quite a healthy price too! But I’m happy I own it all the same. :-)

Clementines

All Fired Up

Oil on Canvas Panel  6 x 6  $75


After the tight painting 'Apeeling', I had a need to do something light and loose. This little flower looked like it was on fire, the colour was so pure and vivid, so I called it All Fired Up. It's a sunny, feel good little painting.

 

All Fired Up

Autumn Glow

Autumn Glow  Oil on Canvas Framed $175

My Plein Air buddies and I have not ventured out so far this year, because it's been sooo cold! We live on Vancouver Island, north of Port Angeles Washington, and it's been very windy as well. Last year at this time, we had been out painting several times, but so far, I'm still painting my landscapes from photos. This is the far end of the beach a few blocks from my home. It's one of our favourite places to walk. The colours on this sunny autumn afternoon, were glowing with warmth from all the wild rosehips growing on the cliffs, and I really enjoyed capturing those colours. This is my second oil painting. I'm having a lot of fun trying to figure things out with this new medium.

 

Autumn Glow

Persimmons

Persimmons   Acrylic on  Linen  $65

I decided to work at making the brush strokes painterly in this one. I tried to make as few strokes as possible while capturing the lighting effect and creating the volumes in the fruits. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

 

Persimmons

Golden Pears

Golden Pears   Acrylic on  Linen  $65

I had a great time painting this little picture. The pears were quite bumpy and full of personality, which showed up well with the lighting. I've just started working on these small paintings, which take about two hours to complete. I'm hoping to work in this format regularly to sharpen my painting skills. 

 

Golden Pears