Love the colors in this one!
December 27, 2014
December 26, 2014
December 21, 2014
So Corny
I bought this colorful harvest corn at the farmer's market and decided to try and paint it. The under-painting is orange, so I did the little strings by scraping off the paint.
December 20, 2014
Lemony Tea
I started collecting items for still life, and found this lacy cup and saucer in a local shop. It cast such an interesting shadow with the sunlight shining through the saucer and the raised scroll work casting light back onto the cup.
December 16, 2014
Red Hills
I had some paint left on my palette after I finished a painting and didn't want to waste it so I painted this abstract landscape just for fun. Most of my favorite brushes were already soaking so I used stuff from my kitchen junk drawer to apply some of the paint.
December 14, 2014
Life is Bowl of Cherry Tomatoes
This was very frustrating to paint and I wasn't happy with it, but then my daughter Rebecca really liked it so I decided to post it and quit being so self-critical. I did learn a lot painting it. One day I will try again.
December 11, 2014
Lonely Pepper
I like the shadow cast by this twisted pepper and the way the tail lifts up and helps to fill the frame. I 'posed' it in sunlight to get the sharp but long shadow.
December 10, 2014
Garlic Grouping
In retrospect, I probably should have tried this in watercolor - the papery garlic leaves did not lend themselves to oil, but overall I like it. It photographed with more vivid colors than the original - in the actual painting the garlic is more white than yellow. I'm still working on the photography, experimenting with camera settings and photo editing. That is more difficult than painting!
December 8, 2014
Pineapple Portrait
I set up this little "portrait" on the edge of a table. This was challenging to paint but I tried not to get too caught up in detail and I'm happy with the way it came out, especially the shadow. It's so easy to overwork a painting of an object that has a lot of detail, but I was feeling very relaxed when painting this - it was a Sunday afternoon and Jake was doing his homework and I was painting and we were just chatting, and it all came together.
December 6, 2014
Blue Espresso
I absolutely love this little espresso cup, and this painting! I used to have a set of four cups, but I'm now down to two unbroken ones. I like the shadow cast by the uneven edge of the cup, which I exaggerated. To get the shadow in sharp relief I set up the still life in sunlight in early morning when the shadows are long, and I got that great shadow above the cup as well as the shadow of the handle on the apple. I was having trouble with the coffee looking a little dull, until I added blue and it worked!
December 5, 2014
Nestling Plums
I think I may have to break out my Nikon SLR for photographing because with my small camera I'm really having trouble getting the color on screen to reflect the original. Or, maybe it's my computer. I like this one better in real life than here; sometimes it's the opposite. The colors are a bit more muted in the original. I was working on getting that bluish-white look on the skin of very ripe plums.
Snuggling Lemons
My sister gave me the beautiful, thick glass bowl in this picture. I had been wanting to paint it for a while, so one day I collected some Meyer lemons from my backyard tree and set up this still life. It's painted with a thicker layer of paint than usual, which usually means I'm having trouble, and that is true here, but there are some elements that work. Overall, the values are all too close to each other, so not enough contrast.
December 3, 2014
Rebecca's Apples
I decided to paint the apples again, but with more detail on the plate. I like this plate with the little raised dots, which I had simplified for the first apple painting.
One apple painting is for Anna and one for Rebecca - my two best supporters, fellow artists, and amazing daughters.
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