Still Life Painting Workshop

'Desire'  Acrylic on Canvas  24 x 24  SOLD

For those of you in Victoria, I have a painting workshop coming up next week. Just a few spots left so don't delay!  

Contemporary Still Life Painting - Acrylics

Tuesdays Jan17 - Feb 21

6:30 - 9pm

Monterey Center, Oak Bay

Cost $75 

To register call: 250 370-7300 Reg# 103003

It's going to be a lot of fun learning various acrylic painting techniques, composition, colour mixing, lighting, grisaille value study, and how to use a view finder. Come on out and join in the fun!

Please take a moment to check out my new website: http://www.clairechristinelfineart.com

Still Life Painting Workshop

New Website and New Show!

Morning Calm  Acrylic  16 x 20

Happy New Year! I always start the New Year by analyzing the past year, and planning for the new year to come. One of my goals for 2010 was to get a new website. I did it! Okay I left it to the last possible moment.... between Christmas and New Years I had the time to sit down at the computer for two days and I can now be found at www.clairechristinelfineart.com . Please take a moment to check out my site and let know what you think. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I've got the bones of it together and it was really fun to create. I went with FASO, recommended by fellow blogger Carrie Waller and I have to say that I'm really impressed with their product and their service is amazing! 

Another exciting thing that happened for me this year is that I started teaching still life painting classes in acrylics. That has been a very fun experience and also a huge learning experience. When we paint it's often very intuitive, and to teach you have to stop and think about each step and why. I learned all sorts of things about my process that I'd never really analyzed or put into words before.

I had some great experiences in shows and events throughout the year. One of the things that I realize is that with each great art experience I meet new artist friends. And it's those artist friend connections that make this industry such a rewarding place. The same is true of my blogging friends. The caring, sharing, support and enthusiasm is so rich in the art blogging world. We spend so much alone time when we're painting, but we go online and discover friends internationally. So I want to thank you all for visiting my blog and extending your kindness toward me, and becoming a cherished friend.

My first show of the year is at the Oak Bay Marina Cafe. Because it's on the water and surrounded by boats, I decided to show mostly west coast seascapes and boating paintings. The above painting is part of the show. If you are in Victoria and out for a seaside walk, drop into the Marina Cafe to warm up and enjoy my show!

New Website and New Show!

Eastern Elegance  Oil on Linen  11 x 14

I so enjoyed painting this one! I have a great fondness for the complimentary combination of orange and blue, and also the warm yellows through reds, so I managed to put all my favourite colour combinations into one painting. I also experimented with the background, as I wanted it to be dark but not black, so I created a grey green as the compliment to the red, and placed a diffused light band running through it. I'm a bit of a pattern fanatic as well, so I really enjoyed painting the Asian table runner. I think I have a few more persimmon paintings in the works before retiring that fruit until next year. 

I'm using the rest of the holiday season to work on my new website. Once I have it launched I'll let you all know, and I'd love you to visit and let me know what you think. In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Silk and Persimmons

Silk and Persimmons  Oil on Linen  11 x 14

This was an experiment with a high horizon line, playing with the rich colours and folds of the silk fabric. I really enjoyed painting the persimmons as well. All the warm nuances and shadows. I'm not sure if I'm completely finished on this one. I may add some glazes in the fabric.

Silk and Persimmons

Bowl of Mandarines

Bowl of Mandarins  Oil on Linen  8 x 8  NFS

I finished this little painting yesterday, and it wasn't until I posted it, that I realized I don't like the dark background. It's too harsh  and cold, with the warm soft colours of the foreground. So I will go back into it and make some changes to the background, and then repost once I've made those changes. I think maybe a subdued wallpaper, or kitchen tiles. Any ideas for the changes?

Bowl of Mandarines

Red Reflected

Red Reflected  Oil on Linen  8 x 10  $300

This one was challenging but a lot of fun. I wanted to create some drama with the lighting, emphasizing the red of the pomegranate, as well as practice painting reflections. I had to really stick to 'paint what you see' because the reflections were not what I expected, in terms of value and colour intensity in some areas. All in all I'm pretty pleased with results.

Red Reflected

Avocado

Avocado  Oil on Linen  6 x 6  NFS

I'M BACK! ! ! I've been very busy for months, and have had the hardest time trying to paint regularly. Then I started painting again and had to keep scraping everything off, or sending the piece to my painting graveyard. Yes, I have one of those. I've never painted an avocado before, and it was kind of fun. I placed it on an old Canada Dry pop crate I have to make it bit more funky. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with my old blogging friends and make some new ones!

I've been busy researching for a new website provider. I need an automated site but one that provides exposure as well.The ones I'm considering are FASO, FolioSnap and Foliotwist. If you have an suggestions or comments or have had a great experience with a website provider, please let me know.

Avocado

Still Life Painting Workshop

Today I taught my first ever painting workshop! I had so much fun! I hope my participants enjoyed it as much as I did. We started by discussing values and creating form, did a grisaille, an underpainting in earth tones, applying the colour overtop. We were using transparent acrylic colour, working on creating luminosity in the fruits. We then went on to painting a small still life set up following the steps we had learned. One of my participants, who was very talented, told me at the end of the day she is 90 years old! I thought she was at least 15 years younger! I hope that when I'm 90 I'm still busy learning and honing my painting skills. Having her in my class made my day. :-)

On my last post where I changed the background of my painting, after the recommendation of my painting buddy Virginia Floyd. I thanked her and linked to her website, but then I changed the font and didn't realize that the link was broken, so here is the link to Virginia's blog.

Still Life Painting Workshop

Pomegranate Again

This is an updated version of the pomegranate painting I posted early this week. It had a lighter, warmer background, and when I saw it online I thought it looked it too subtle, and posed the question whether I should I darken the background. My blogging buddy Virginia Floyd suggested that it would make a more dramatic painting, so here is the changed version. I'm pleased with outcome. Thanks Virginia!

Pomegranate Again

Pomegranite

Pomegranate  6 x 6  Oil on Linen

I just love the rich reds of pomegranates. They are such a paintable fruit. I'm not sure I like the background, I'm thinking of darkening it. What do you think? Would a darker background improve this little painting?  I'm currently working on some small pieces for the upcoming Small Works Shows, of which there are many around the Christmas season. This is the first of them. 

BTW I've forgotten to tell you that I entered the Daily Paintworks Challenge for the Children of Africa a while back. I'm really pleased to say that my painting sold, and I will be making the donation to the Canadian Red Cross in the next few days.

Pomegranite

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. 

Lemons & Light II - Still Life Step by Step

Train Art

Recently we were in Whistler BC, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Our daughter decided to show us some unusual art in an even more unusual place. Way off the beaten track, in the middle of a beautiful west coast forest, lies a train wreck from the 1950's. Over several decades, many artists have graced the interior and exterior walls of the train cars that are wedged between the trees. It's so colourful and  organic, with trees and plant life growing on and in the cars.

Whistler has a lot of artists, but also a lot of mountain bikers. A crew of die hard bikers have built ramps and jumps starting with the car at the highest elevation and continuing down through the train cars, like a crazy obstacle course. We didn't see any bikers while we were there but kept an eye out for bears and cougars. The whole thing had a haunting kind of beauty to it, and certainly a lot of history. I kept trying to figure out what decade the various pieces of art had been painted.  The total quiet and peace of the forest combined with the street art painted train cars and the obvious force of the derailment, gave it a surreal effect. We're still talking about it!

Train Art