Monday, March 18, 2013

Another lesson from Sargent

I've seen Sargent paintings before, but it's been a while. It seems when I see one up close it always shouts out to me what DOES work in a painting. Of course the obvious things like flawless drawing skills and bravura brushstrokes, but this time what I was being made obvious to me is EDGES.

This is what has been on my mind a lot regarding my own work. Maybe that is why it stood out to me... Or maybe it's just because his were so amazing!



Friday, March 15, 2013

Boston for the Anders Zorn show

I haven't been posting because I'm in Boston! The Anders Zorn exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum was really great. I wish I could post some pictures of the exhibit but they were super tough! No photograph, move away from the paintings and don't lean on the glass !!! Lol

The Boston museum of Art was amazing, too and they don't mind if you take photos, so l will post a John Singer Sargent here. I was especially impressed by these hydrangeas. Look at the simplicity in the first picture. See how it all comes together as you see the whole painting? Amazing !!

I have attempted the elusive hydrangeas and so I know how tough it is to see them simply. You want to over describe them because you get intoxicated by the intense color and little flowers that make up the big Pom poms.




Friday, March 8, 2013

Daffodills

Flowers are challenging. It's been a while since I've painted them and I can tell I'm going to have to work on seeing them more simply.


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Silver and Strawberries

I'm taking another stab at this silver cup. It's loads of fun to paint and there is a lot to learn there. I'm still trying to keep edges in mind and gradation, too. I feel like my backgrounds could have more dimension.

I also have a ton of strawberries to eat for dinner tonight!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Lemon with silver cup

So I'm loving the intensity of the lemon, and I'm challenged by the silver.

Still, painting this was a lot of fun!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Orange bell pepper

This was a quickie. I had to be at work in one hour so I only got 45 minutes for this one. My brushes will be sitting in turpentine until I get home tonight at 11 o'clock. No time to clean them!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Plums

I'm trying to concentrate on edges. I think it's something really worth concentrating on. I may try to really push it because I have a tendency to want to describe something so much that I "kill the butterfly".

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Cupcake

I didn't know that icing melts under hot lights... Of course it does!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tarte Tatin

I made this last night, since I had the pears I'd been using for subjects for some of my paintings. I just couldn't let them go to waste! (This is how my pastry loving brain works).

It's a French dish - basically an upside down apple pie - although in this case is was a mixture of pears, apples, and cranberries.

Did I mention my husband is French? I'd love to paint some of his beautiful French country cooking. The food is as beautiful as it is delicious...


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Doodles

I did paint today, but only had half an hour with it, so I'll try and finish it tomorrow.

So you see I'm still drawing all the time at breaks at my night job.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Peppermint Candy

I feel like this was probably the hardest thing I've ever tried to paint!

I actually worked on this for two sessions instead of one so probably a total of four hours.

A year from now I'm going to try to paint this again and I'm going to nail it!

In the meantime if anyone has any kind of suggestions on how to solve a problem like this and please let me know With a comment. Please!!!




Cutting the Cord

Well I did it.... I disconnected my cable tv. To be honest, I rarely watched it, And now I've freed up about 70 more dollars a month to spend on my art- not to mention the time that I feel is such a rare commodity these days.

I'll keep Netflix and still rent the occasional movie, but goodbye and good riddance to the usual blather that is on cable tv ( most of it is, in my opinion).

This is all part of a larger plan that I might share at another time.

For now, my cat Rudy is enjoying the new dangling cords!


Monday, February 11, 2013

Cracking Up

This was a whole a lot of fun. But still I feel like I'm running out of time.
I think I'm going to try some smaller sizes.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Pair of Pears

I tried to stay loose today and work my edges but it seems like I keep going back into it and fussing with it too much.

Maybe a good idea would be to try some 20 stroke paintings?


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Blue Cheese

Wow! I took on a lot to paint in a couple of hours! This is an 8x10. Also my favorite glass to drink wine from.



Monday, February 4, 2013

Orange slices

Today I was really trying to concentrate on edges and simplicity. I Tried here to keep it simple and keep my edges loose.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Mouse

Running late today, but I'm drawing as often as I can even if I didn't have time to get in the studio today.

Maybe this is a good idea for a series of work related objects...

I've been thinking that I'd like to set up regular painting times and work with similar subjects for a week or a month, or maybe try paintings with an emphasis on certain important elements of painting, like a focus on edges, or composition.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Values, values, values

I used this great app called Value Viewer  to take a picture of the values of both the still life set up and my painting.

The vantage point from each are a bit different as you can see, but all in all I didn't do such a terrible job at the values.

The cork laying down could stand to be brought up a bit on the top, but I think the problem may be more of a color issue. And of course, drawing...




Corks are hard!

Isn't everything at times though?

I struggled today with this painting, I'll admit. The values were so close! A good lesson though. Ill look back on the setup and the painting tomorrow with fresh eyes and see what I can see then.

If there is anyone who has some ideas/critiques, please leave a comment!


Monday, January 28, 2013

Garlic

I'm trying to figure out how to take better photos of my studies. Most of the time I've been using my iPhone, and taking a picture directly into blogger. This time I took a picture (still with my iPhone) and loaded it into photoshop express and there I was able to crop and adjust the exposure.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Tomato on foil

I'm learning the benefits of taking a break. When I was painting this I was called away with a phone call and usually it takes a hook to separate me from my painting once I'm into it.

When I returned to my painting I was happy with the results of the break!