Infant of Prague 16" x 20"

I have started another painting - like I need another painting to work on, right? This is the first in a series I have been thinking about. I am very nonplussed by it at the moment. The composition is static, the painting is very blonde, and it has none of the majesty I imagined for it. Still it is a nice break from working so large as with the current figure paintings. Additionally, this piece is solely from observation - my favourite way of painting.

Dry Point Etchings

Here are two pieces I made in my printmaking class I am taking at the Shemer Center. I love the results of working with dry point. The lower image of the onions looks especially moody - like a small ink painting. Both copper plates have been reworked a little after these prints and I have yet to proof the corrections, but these images are only undergoing slight adjustments. The etchings are tiny. I think the onion were scratched into a 4 x 6 plate? (perhaps even smaller). And the hibiscus plate is only 4 or 3 inches square.

Squash

This was all done on the same day that I began the painting. I have added the shadows underneatht the squash and worked in more detail into the vegetables. It was a good day painting.

Squash 12 x 18

I really love the boards this painting is on. I love to touch them - the smooth sanded surface of the gesso, the mounds of block printing ink - plastic and chaotic - like a fingerprint. And now, once it is dry, the thick impasto of the oil paint. I'm so sorry that we can't interact with great works of art through touch. The photo of this piece was taken with a flash so the wet paint is reflecting that light in places, and I have already added shadows underneath the squash. It makes them look as if they are sitting on the boards themselves.

Almost Finished

I think this photo is a little out of focus, but I guess now you know how lazy I can be...
I added a bird to the painting, and I was struggling with the composition. Was it complete? Did I like the movement in it? Was it too "composed"? But I just stopped worrying. I'm going to live with it. I also developed the table the pepper is resting on. It is sitting on a white cloth, and I began articulating the folds. I am not sure I like this change a lot. There was something nice and clean about the previous flat white surface the pepper rested on. But again, I am going to go with it. I feel compelled to do so.

More red pepper painting

As usual, I am excited about how this piece is developing. I am thinking about adding another element on table with the red pepper, but haven't yet decided what.

Bell Pepper 12" x 12"

I think I have found where the wallpaper fits into my work. (And maybe a new avenue for the still lifes as well.) I like the combination of observational painting: the pepper, and painting something that has more to do with design and illustration: the wallpaper. It is allowing me to determine a color scheme within the piece and break away from painting straight local color. When we were at the Barnes in Philadelphia I was struck by the colors in Van Gogh's work. Among all other painters he seemed to deliberately pick the colors in his painting rather than simply reproduce what may exist naturally in his subject. Perhaps I only noticed this because he consistently produced color arrangements that struck a chord with me. But seeing the work reminded me of my own fascination with color and I think I'll spend a little time exploring it in this way.

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.

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.

Ewer again

Well, I reshot this painting and am deleting the previous entry. This photo more closely represents the colors in the painting. And I have finished this piece. I got a good build up of paint on the surface of the piece and am beginning to work differently. I am excited about laying colors down without blending them together...I can't really be more articulate than that right now. Take a close up look and you'll see what I mean.

Ewer 2

Here is the new still life after a little work. There's not much of a change, except that more of the canvas is filled in with the first layer of paint.

Here too are a couple pictures of where I work on all these paintings.

Ewer 18" x 14"

I took a break from the portrait for a little white on white still life. I'll probably keep working on both at the same time.

Practice Scales

Here is the painting I began a while back. You haven't seen it before perse, but I have mentioned it. This is my first venture on a wood panel with oil paints. It is a poplar board and I built a cradle for it (a wooden backing to prevent the panel from warping). I then gessoed the surface to protect it from the oils and sized the gesso to prevent it from overabsorbing the paint. Then I got completely frustrated. The sizing didn't resist the oil paints the way a canvas can and my paint was drying upon application.

After building up the layers and beginning to use linseed oil in my paints, I am back to the normal absorbtion and drying rate of oil paints. And I am very pleased by the smooth surface the panel affords me. Painting tiny detail is much easier on a flat board than a knobbly canvas. So I am finding I am able to paint teeny tiny objects in this composition. I am also getting some nice passages - well one so far. It is the detail I provided. I think the paint application became very nice and wet - soupy. The paint has a sense of flow, accident, or life to it.

I don't have many thoughts on this piece as to what it is about. I suppose I am not really trying to do something like that with this work. It's perhaps just a simple exercise again in still life. So that I can have a place to rest while I am in the studio. This painting is practice - like scales would be to a musician.

Magpie comes to Dinner

I was able to get some good work done over the last three days. I have made it to the hardware store (overcoming a mental block) to purchase some poplar wood. The paintings I am making now are fairly realistic - this last one especially. And I think that working on wood will provide a smoother surface for painting detail. A few days ago, I picked up my miter saw from my parent's home and I have used it to build the first support. The new format is small - only 12" x 8"; but I have some good ideas for it. Looks like I will be working primarily from photograph for this second painting. It solves a logistics problem for me. My studio is small and I am currently not able to set up another still life before finishing the previous painting. I am looking forward to getting two pieces going at once. Also I think this bird that has crept into the Dinner painting portends a body of work, which I will try out on the new wooden support. I'm very excited about all of it - the new direction and even the current state of the Dinner painting.

Dinner again

Here is the Dinner painting after some more work. This is definitely becoming a labour of love. The photo is darker in tone than the original post. This is a camera problem that I am having, but I am reluctant to correct it in Photoshop because I think the program alters the colors of the painting too much. This photo better represents the hue of the painting but perhaps sacrifices some of the highlights and lighter tones. I also published some details so you can get a better look at the painting.

Dinner 16" x 20"

It's always a little hard to get the colors right in these photos that I am posting to the web. But I feel that this is a good approximation - certainly (good enough) for a blog post. I wanted to spend a little more time on a painting than I have been, so I chose something more complex. And now, I am facing a few questions. I don't know what I would like to place in the background of the piece. Currently, I have the still life set up in front of a blank white wall. (The same ubiquitous "white wall" in all of my paintings.) The picture frame that is in the painting now is just something I have quickly sketched in as a possible solution. I know I could create more depth by simply introducing an edge of something that could be hung on the wall behind the table, but I am looking for a solution that isn't so easy. I think there is an opportunity to create more space in the painting and probably to create more interest. I was discussing the issue with my husband and at that time I felt what I chose to put in the background might point to what I'd really like to paint. I've experienced that before. The still lifes are something I am setting up to get the physical operation of painting beginning and to give it some purpose. And through this repeated exercise I am hoping to uncover some compulsion - something I can't resist putting into the picture, a pallette I can't resist using, a composition...I am trying to search out what I really want to paint. If in the end the still lifes are the "End", that's okay too. But I have a sense that I need this time and repeated motion of painting to unearth my ideas. Any input or observations are encouraged. Other people's ideas are always good fodder. I went to my second life drawing session on Thursday, so I'll post some photos of that soon.

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).