Finished onion drawing

Here is the finished onion drawing.

Les Ongions 10" x 10"

There's something about posting on here that gets me working. I put in a little more time with the artichokes and then began this piece. It's marker, India ink, and white acrylic on paper, and I think it's coming along nicely. The marks along the edge of the piece are masking tape that will be removed when the drawing is finished.

Finished artichokes 10" x 11"

I may do a few touch ups on this piece. The artichokes have long ago rotted away, so I am forced to be done with the drawing of them. In my mind the background of this piece was dark so I filled in a square area around the artichokes to get a sense of how it would look, and then decided that I may crop the image into the square format pictured above. The graphite on panel was an interesting experiment, but I am not sure it's the right medium for me. It is very irreversible like watercolor. Once something is layed down on the wood it is hard to remove it even with sandpaper. In the past I have drawn with India ink and acrylic paint which allows me to completely alter the work, and I feel much more comfortable working in that way. Perhaps I will try it again, but I am not sure.
I have made a few new sketches this week and will be adding them to my sketchbook link soon.

Artickokes 11" x 36"

I started this piece today. I am working with graphite on a birch panel. It is a very long thin format which is how I most commonly worked six years ago, and it felt like a breath of fresh air to get back to it. It's such a strange size I know; but I really feel comfortable composing on long "canvases". I love it. Below is a picture of the piece in it's entirety so you can get a sense of the composition.

* Also we had a new addition to the family

that I am very excited about. I just

bought her today at an excellent price

in the shop round the corner.

Asparagus 5" x 7"

I worked on this small piece last week and was able to put in two one hour sessions on it. I found myself racing against time because the asparagus changed so dramatically between the two sittings. I don't really consider this painting very successful. I think I was spending my time getting familiar with the subject and perhaps I can turn this "study" into something more at a later time. There are some exciting passages in the piece but the painting doesn't function well as a whole. So I recommend clicking on the image and looking at it close up. That's how I like this painting best.

Lemons 5" x 7"

Here is a photo of the lemon painting. This was taken after three one hour sessions working on the piece. The branch is beginning to die so the leaves are losing moisture and changing shape ever so slightly between each session. I have enjoyed the colors in the subject as well as working on something I love that I encounter each day - the lemon tree next door. The last oil painting of apples led me to working in this palette - highly saturated colors (fruit) on white plates. I love the contrast and the clean look. I purchased another sketchbook the other day, this one for pen and ink drawings. And I work in it when getting to the easel seems daunting. Check the blog for links to that book and my Moleskin soon.

Eggs 4" x 5"

I have been trying to paint everyday again, but just for a short time. Here is a small painting I started yesterday when I realized it was the wrong time of day to work on the apples. (The shadows in the still life were very different in the early morning.) I finsihed the eggs during my session today and began a painting of a branch from the lemon tree in our neighbor's backyard.

My Moleskin

I broke down and bought one of those tragically expensive trendy little Moleskin sketch pads this week after visiting their website and finding some really nice examples of watercolor sketches. (Clever advertising idea...it worked.) It has solved a small problem of mine which is that my studio is located in my house. Thus, long days painting also mean long days in the house. Now I am able to be more mobile and I spent Tuesday painting pictures of lettuces at an organic farm. Watercolour is not really my forte and I am doing this for little more than play - diversionary art. But perhaps it will open me up and get me less focused on product and more on process. This morning I woke up and made a quick watercolour of the apples set up in my studio for my current oil painting. Here they are.

Here too is a link to the Moleskin website as well as Amanda Kavanagh's work. Click on the sketchbook icons in the left hand column of Amanda's website. It's really beautiful work.

More apples

Here it is again after a little more work. I'm still very excited.

Apples on a plate 9" x 12"

I'm very excited about this piece. This picture is after the first session only, and the paint appears fairly transparent. I'm working some more on it right now and have been able to deepen the colors and opacity.

Kizmet

How does it happen?...

The pear picture took me two days of work - maybe four hours. The Braeburn apple - twenty minutes. Where do these things come from? I have been slaving away all summer to nail that loose, effortless aesthetic of the apple painting. And lo and behold, there is no slaving involved in the execution. It is indeed effortless. Of course, I realize that all these images build upon one another and I wouldn't be here without that whole summer of painting. Blah dee blah dee blah...It's like being told to eat your vegetables because they're good for you. In this case, however, the reward is more gratifying.

I finally got some good images of my paintings not the deep dark murky pictures that I continually post. The image of the pear painting hasn't been photoshopped at all! I am forever fooled by the illuminated screen of my digital camera, thinking the picture is correctly exposed. Now I am on the path of overexposure.

Both pieces are 4" x 3" or 3" x 4", as it were.

Tomato Salad 10" x 8"

Diane got me thinking about the seasonality of produce, and well, what's summer without tomatoes? I got really excited about painting them - even fixed tomato salad for dinner last night. I am wondering why I am obsessively painting food. Maybe that's where my focus has been for the last few years. Maybe I have developed an appreciation of it's beauty over that time. Maybe I like to cook because I think food is beautiful - poetic. If you read enough cooking magazines, cookbooks, and food writing it is hard not to become entranced. Some people call it "food porn". (That could be a whole new avenue for the paintings...)

Whatever the reason, it does allow you some control over your pallete. Are you interested in red?...Paint a tomato. Green?...an apple. I think too that the colors of produce are bold and pure. There's nothing quite like the orange of an orange. If you want to really indulge in saturated colors, paint fresh produce.

I tried to be a little more conscious in my handling of the oil paints with this piece - strictly work fat over lean. I'm sure that before I was haphazardly slopping the stuff on the canvas. I think I got a different product this time. But I'm not so sure it was purely the method that produced a fresh style as much as the process of approaching a painting differently. Focusing on how I was laying the paint on gave my consciousness a little nudge, put it in a different relationship with the painting, and gave me a new result.

I feel compelled to include my recipe for tomato salad as well. Be sure to taste and adjust seasonings as this is an approximation of what I did last night. Improvise too - try basil instead of sage, or add cucumbers to the mix.

6 Roma tomatoes, large dice
1/4 red onion, paper thin sliced (half or quarter moon-shapes)
1/4 pound Feta, large dice
1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted, chopped
2-3 fl oz. olive oil
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
3 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1/8 tsp. Fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
3 fresh sage leaves, chiffonade

Combined ingredients and let marinate for at least one hour.

Green Apples 8" x 10"

After a wonderful discussion about art this Sunday with my sister in-law, Diane, I have the feeling there is much to learn. (Maybe I'm just getting in touch with reality...) Today I started a new painting in the studio that I think has a different style to it - born of the aforementioned Sunday conversation. I'll post a photo of that tomorrow. But tonight I'll post an older painting - the first one I sat down to do this summer.

Bowls and Limes 5" x 10"

This week it was limes in little glass bowls. I found some stunning artwork on the web http://www.twinhouse.com/artists.php4 . Check out Neil Hollingsworth and Karen Hollingsworth. The kind of heart achingly beautiful stuff you only wish you could paint. I think I was most struck by the austerity of their color pallete - very stark, neutral, almost white. So that is where this began. I snapped a photo of limes out on our kitchen counter. But somehow, and it's always been this way with me, when I sat down to paint the painting or more correctly the palette took over. In the end I stopped out of frustration, but as with any painting I work on, I have an affection for it, although it's most certainly going to need some time to grow on me.

Image number two...

This is a sketch in oil 3 inches by 5 inches. (By the way, the painting pictured below is 18" x 18"; and has progressed beyond the photo I published. It has not been finished as the still life went to rot. Other people must paint faster than I do, I never see mold in the paintings I look at by other artists...)

Hope is a thing with feathers...

It has been a long time since I have sat down to paint, even fleetingly. And I haven't been able to consistently sit down to work for years; but it's been even longer still since I sat down and tried to cope with oil paints. I guess anything can happen.

Work has been very slow and frustrating. I just got married after putting in a hellaciously long season at my pastry chef position; and once we returned from our honeymoon in Europe I wondered, "What the hell do I do now?" And not just "now" as in "to occupy my time"; but "Now" as in "with my life". Although I am trying not to let this all be burdened with too much meaning. We've no money, I've too much free time, and Phoenix has become excrutiatingly hot. Usually for me times like these are the antithesis to painting. (Although the last six years of life have seemingly also been the antithesis to painting.) Somehow, I have managed to eke out a little space in the studio and in my mind to try this out again.

Let's hope (with bated breath).