Category: Still Life

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Every Day Matters Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

A shiny, new hour for free (& EDM #144- Something Square)

EDM #144 - Something Square

Watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper in sketchbook, 5.5 x 7.5″
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This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is to draw something square. I searched my house and office and found nothing square until I started thinking about time.Then I remembered this kitchen timer that I’m going to use to make the timed paintings I wrote about yesterday. It was sitting next to these tea bags which are also (nearly) square.

I’ve been having a hard time making the transition back to ordinary time after the end of Daylight Savings. The actual day of “falling back” is my favorite day of the year because it means getting an extra hour.  Instead of resetting my clocks on Saturday night and wasting the fresh new hour sleeping, I pick an hour that I want to experience fully as my new hour. I use it for something extra special, or for something that in my usual driven way I don’t allow time for—like relaxing in a bubble bath or other such luxuries. This year I stretched it out through Monday, actually giving myself the hour several times, and then each time deciding that it wasn’t the one, and giving myself another. It was such fun!

But by Tuesday when I returned to the office, I still hadn’t settled on the perfect hour or reset my clocks and it was getting confusing. Instead of getting to say, “Oh goodie, it’s not really 3:00, it’s only 2:00! Whoopie! Another free hour!” I was looking at my watch and saying, “Oh drat, it’s not really 3:00, it’s only 2:00 — three more hours until I can take my headache home and put it to bed.”

And then today (Wednesday), even though I went to bed early and woke on time, I ended up arriving at work really late—exactly opposite what should be happening, given the extra hour in the morning. So now I’ve finally reset all my clocks and joined the world in ordinary time.

I wonder if it’s possible to give myself a special “free” hour every day, without having to wait for the annual end of Daylight Savings. Maybe I could just declare one hour each day a special hour to enjoy as I see fit. Why not? What do you think?

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Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Halloween Candy & Earthquakes

Halloween Candy

Watercolor on Arches Hot Press paper in 5.5 x 7.5″ sketchbook
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Last night was Cody’s birthday party at Hunan Villa in Pinole.  There were 10 of us sitting around the table celebrating, with good food and good company. Halfway through dinner we all noticed the table seemed to be rocking back and forth and so did my chair. Everyone looked at each other trying to make sense of it.  At first we all thought it was someone bumping the table, but the floor seemed to be moving in a strange wavelike manner as well. Suddenly a painting flew off the wall two feet away from us and smashed to the floor, scattering glass everywhere. That’s when we realized it was a fairly good-sized earthquake. Fortunately that was the end of it (for now) and we all went back to celebrating, considerably more alert than before.

These candies are called “Gruesome Gummy Candy” (and one Hersheys Nugget) — all that was left at 6:00 P.M. at Longs on my way home.  I think they’re supposed to be spiders or tarantulas. I like to wait until the last minute to buy Halloween candy so I don’t eat it all, long before the trick-or-treaters arrive. Sadly only three groups came to my door tonight. In my old neighborhood where I lived on a main street, streams of cute little ones came by all night long, which I relished. Now what to do with all the extra candy? Hmmmm…..

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Gardening Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages Still Life

More Last Tomatoes

The Last Tomatoes in a Bowl

Watercolor on Arches 140 lb hot press paper drawn first in blue Micron Pigma pen, 5.5″ 7.5″
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Yesterday I cleaned up my four tomato plants, removing all the dead leaves and icky, gooshy tomatoes (without screaming once — squooshy, slimey things scare me) and was delighted to discover an abundance of still quite lovely tomatoes, ripe and ready to be picked. I was sure when I painted the last bunch of tomatoes that they were truly the last, but we’ve had some wonderful summer weather all over again and the tomatoes just keep on doing their thing.

I piled them in this old stoneware bowl and stuck them in the fridge. I’ve been working on an oil painting family portrait (more about that tomorrow) and have been neglecting my blog. So I decided to stop working on the oil painting, and loosen up with the tomatoes and some watercolor in my sketchbook.

Now back to the portrait. If I don’t finish it tomorrow I’ll post the work in progress. The painting was inspired by looking through some baby pictures of my son with his father and grandfather that we wanted to bring on a visit to my father-in-law. He’s been very ill and on Thursday night he thoroughly enjoyed seeing the pictures (and us). I was hoping to finish the painting before he died and to share it with him but sadly/blessedly he passed away this morning. If the painting turns out well enough, I’ll bring it to his memorial. In the meantime it’s been a blessing for me to lovingly paint his smiling face, knowing it would not be visible much longer.

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Art theory Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Pear on Blue Plate

Pear in Oil

Oil on canvas panel, 8×6″
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After feeling like I’d taken one big step forward with my painting on Saturday, in Sunday’s painting class I felt like I’d taken two giant steps backwards. I wasn’t inspired by the view of dry, grayish rolling hills and just kept putting paint down, deciding it was all wrong, and scraping it off. I guess I was just tired after painting day and night on Saturday and also there were some new concepts that needed to sink in.

I was determined to do a better job today and wanted to focus on the guidance I received from my teacher on Sunday: avoiding muddy colors by putting strokes down and leaving them, focusing on color temperature and using colorful grays. I painted the pear about three or four times this evening, getting it almost done and then messing it up one way or another, scraping off all the paint, and starting over.

As it got closer to bedtime I got even more determined to put strokes down and leave them. It worked and I’m happy with the results.

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Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Last of the Summer Tomatoes

Last of the tomatoes

Watercolor on Arches cold pressed paper in sketchbook, 7×5.5″
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I was so tired tonight after all day meetings at work (and staying up painting very late last night) that all I wanted to do was go to bed as soon as I got home. But my painting group was coming over and I was looking forward to seeing everyone so I tidied up the studio to make room for them to paint after my marathon painting sessions this weekend.

Seeing everyone painting got me energized so I grabbed these tomatoes from my garden, set them up under a light and got to work. I regret the last shadow I put in (between the the two groups of tomatoes). I thought it might help the composition by bridging the two groups, but I think it just added to the confusion of all the competing shapes and colors (which is made worse by the scan–in the original the shadows aren’t so bright).

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Art theory Flower Art Glass Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Painting Still Life

Dahlias after Painting Class

Dahlias in Oil

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Oil paint on gessoed mat board, 12×7.5″

Sunday was my first plein air oil painting workshop with Elio Camacho and it was fabulous! Elio is not only a wonderful painter, but he’s a fantastic teacher — so energetic, enthusiastic and generous in sharing everything he knows (which is a lot!).

Although Elio covered a huge amount of artistic territory in his conversations with us, what really sunk in for me at this session was the importance of temperature (warm vs cool colors) and value (dark vs light) and how to use those relationships to paint the effects of light in the landscape.

To better understand this concept and practice seeing color temperature, he suggested doing a still life of all yellow objects as homework so I painted these dahlias from my garden (after scrubbing all the nasty aphids and ants off them–ick!). Yellow is a good color to practice with because there are many yellow pigments from cool to warm and dark to light and you can successfully lighten it with white, unlike red which turns pastel pink when white is added.

Since I started this journey to learn oil painting, I’ve read many books, watched a dozen oil painting videos, and received wonderful support from my online painting mentor, Nel. There were so many concepts, “rules”, and techniques that I understood intellectually but in class they came to life! Seeing the process demonstrated and being able to ask questions each step of the way was great.

And even better was having Elio checking on me every 15 minutes or so during the three hours I was painting. He demonstrated what he meant when I didn’t understand; he recommended I quit dabbling– put down a stroke and leave it; he showed me how to hold my brush correctly and at what angle, so I was putting paint down without scraping it off at the same time (hold the tip of the brush and keep it at a low angle to the canvas, not perpendicular as I was doing). So many things just clicked.

The painting I did in class isn’t worth posting, though it had some nice moments along the way. Now that I know how to hold my brush properly and understand the importance of the direction of the brush stroke, and am learning to see color temperature and value better, I’m can’t wait to start my next painting!

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Art theory Flower Art Glass Oil Painting Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Wax On, Wax Off (Breathe In, Breathe Out)

Rose in a Jar

Oil on panel, 12×9″
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The title of this post refers to words from the 1984 movie Karate Kid and also my process in this painting except for the painting it would be more like “Paint On, Wipe Off (Breathe!) Paint On, Wipe Off… ” (click on “Keep Reading” below to see photos of the steps). I’m not happy with the front flower but I’m ready to move on to the next painting. With each one I learn so much more, including how much more there is to learn!!!!

I had two main goals for this painting/learning experience:

  • Think in terms of “Whole Canvas”
  • Keep trying to understand how to work with oil paint so that I’m taking advantage of its wonderful qualities rather than fighting them. (I’ll keep trying!)

In my many years of watercolor painting, I worked hard to capture what excited me about my subject. I often worked close focus without much background, or just using the lovely white of the paper as my background to set off the glittering glass or glowing flowers I was painting. If the composition didn’t quite work out–no problem, just crop as needed with a mat and frame.

In oil painting the background has to be an integral part of the painting–you can’t just leave the glaring white of the gessoed canvas as your background. And you can’t crop a stretched canvas or panel like you can paper. I was struggling with this concept and finally it clicked. It’s just another way of seeing and, like peeling layers of the onion, the haze peeled from eyes and I could see that a painting is not subject & background — they fit together to complete the picture, just as night completes day. While an object that interests me enough to paint it is the focal point, I need (for now) to think of the PAINTING as the subject.

Continue reading “Wax On, Wax Off (Breathe In, Breathe Out)”
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Art theory Other Art Blogs I Read Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Egg Cup with Mushrooms

Egg cup with mushrooms

Watercolor on Arches cold pressed paper, 6″x5″ in sketchbook
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I was at Berkeley Giclee on 4th Street in Berkeley on Monday to approve a test print of a painting I sold before the final giclee was made. The photographer/printer, Tony Molatore is a genius and so great to work with. The print is the same size as the original painting and it’s really hard to tell them apart.

While I was on 4th Street I stopped at the Crate and Barrel Outlet and bought some inexpensive goodies to use in still life setups including this little egg cup and periwinkle colored square plate. I’m going to paint this in oils too, but tonight my painting group was here and I wanted to join them with watercolor.

In my many years of painting in watercolor I focused on accurately capturing what I was seeing and on watercolor technique. Now that I’m also painting in oils I can’t just leave the white of the paper as background, or easily crop paintings when they’re done. Overall design and composition become very important so I’ve been trying to relearn all those elements from classes I took so many years ago. I tried to apply a couple of “rules” of good composition here:

1. Never “float” a still life. Make it go off the page on two sides or more (Told to me by Nel Jansen who learned it from another artist.)

2. “Never make any two intervals the same.” In other words, no equal divisions of space or equal quantities of dark/light, warm/cool, color, hard edge/soft edge etc. in a painting (The Simple Secret to Better Painting by Greg Albert — a good basic book on composition).

On the other hand, I’m noticing I have a foreground with nothing in the middle ground or background which seems a little odd and a few hard edges that should have been softened (which I will do later).

And on the other, other hand I had a wonderful time painting and being with my dear painting buddies tonight and seeing the lovely colors and shapes in the things I was painting.

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Art theory Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Roses on Stage

Roses-on-Stage (FINAL?)Write

Oil on canvas 16×12″
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UPDATE 9/22/07: Please see my friend and painting mentor Nel Jansen’s painting of this subject and her step by step process. It’s really great!

I’ve been working on this painting for three weekends, painting, scraping off what I painted, and painting again. When I started I was working from life but I ran out of time, the flowers died, and I had to work from the photo. It just wasn’t as much fun. I was determined to finish tonight and I think I have. I may still touch it up a bit, so any suggestions are welcomed!

I read that it’s better for one’s learning with oil painting in the beginning to do 30 small, quick (an hour or two) paintings than to work on one painting for 30 hours. I can see why! So that will be my next step. My goal with oil painting is to mix the right colors the first time, put down the paint, and leave it alone but I’m not there yet as the following progression demonstrates:

Continue reading “Roses on Stage”
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Gardening Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Funny tomatoes from my garden

Funny-tomatoes

Ink & watercolor on Arches cold pressed paper in 6×8 sketchbook
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I don’t know why some of my tomatoes are growing so strangely, with funny little noses and other appendages. Maybe they’re a little crowded? Or it’s just the nature of this type. I’ve got 5 plants of different types of tomatoes and these are the only ones doing this. I live in a normally foggy summer area and last year my tomatoes didn’t get ripe until the end of October. This year they’re doing great as it’s been lovely sunny weather all summer.

I’ve been trying to figure out whether it’s sunlight or warmth that makes tomatoes get ripe. I’m guessing it’s the sunlight but maybe it’s both. If it was hot out but dark all the time, or very bright and sunny but cold, they wouldn’t ripen. But what makes them ripen? I know I could just look this up somewhere but it’s more fun to try to mull it over and come up with theories… But if you know, please do tell!

I’m also curious if what makes tomatoes ripen is the same thing that makes peaches or plums ripen (they’re both reddish) but what about green things. Do they need to ripen to? I’ve never heard of ripe spinach or ripe lettuce.