Category: Still Life

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Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Delicata: Raw, Cut, Cooked

Delicata Squash, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Delicata Squash, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

The Delicata squash were so pretty I wanted to paint them. And then I wanted to cook them (a first time for me). Exploring new produce is an adventure. First draw it, then cut it open and see what’s inside.

Delicata cut, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Delicata cut, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

The texture of squash doesn’t really appeal to me too much. Especially the slimy parts before it’s cooked. But it makes an interesting sketching subject.

Delicata Cooked on Metal Pan, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Delicata Cooked on Metal Pan, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I like this sketch best, with the squash sitting in the reflective, stainless steel roasting pan. I ate a couple of their brethren with my dinner and then brought the leftovers to the studio to sketch.

I’m still not a huge fan . It was OK, roasted with some butter and a little cinnamon. But I think next time (if there is one) I will go for a more savory flavor, with lots of garlic instead.

UPDATE 10/23/11: My art blogger friend Jana Botkin shared these thoughts on squash and art that I had to share here:

  1. A friend once said to me “Squash is the past tense of squish, and squish is not a food”.
  2. We full-time artists could theoretically write off the cost of our groceries if we paint them first!
  3. Garlic, oregano and parmesan cheese are almost the only way I find squash palatable. Without it, it is only palette-able!
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Art supplies Drawing Flower Art Glass Ink and watercolor wash Painting Plein Air Rose Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

War of the Roses, Part I: Schmincke Watercolor Review

Schmincke Rose Saga #1, ink & watercolor
Schmincke Rose Saga #1, ink & watercolor

On the next test run of my new Schmincke palette that Roz introduced here, I painted some roses on a tablecloth in the sun on the deck. While the Schmincke pan paint is lovely to use, and the palette a good size and design, the colors frustrated me. Their version of rose called Permanent Carmine (PV19) is much redder than the Winsor Newton (PV19) Permanent Rose I rely on for pinks and several other colors didn’t appeal to me.

In the color chart below, the top and bottom rows are the original Schmincke colors that came with the set. I added the colors in the center row by filling empty half-pans from tube paint in the space designed for adding extra pans.

Schmincke palette original colors plus added middle row
Schmincke palette original colors plus added middle row

The colors (abbreviated above) are:

Continue reading “War of the Roses, Part I: Schmincke Watercolor Review”
Categories
Life in general Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Eight Dollar Eggs!

Eight Dollar Eggs, oil on panel, 6x6"
Eight Dollar Eggs, oil on panel, 6x6"

I’ve been trying to eat a healthier diet and choosing produce and meat that has been sustainably grown. Unfortunately, while the farming may be sustainable, often the prices aren’t.

I bought one dozen eggs from a Marin County farm at the local farmers’ market. The vendor explained how the chickens were totally free-range and so got to eat greens and bugs along with their organic vegetarian feed.

“In fact,” he bragged as he took my money, “the chickens follow the cows around and eat the maggots from their dung!” Yum! Protein!

Despite their fine, buggy diet, these eggs seemed neither fresher nor tastier than the free-range organic eggs I get at Trader Joes for less than half the $8.00 I paid for this dozen.

To try to get a little more value out of my investment, I made one of the pretty light blue eggs pose for a still life. I like the way that the lighting coming from below gives the painting a slightly spooky look.

Painting available here.

Categories
Art theory Flower Art Oil Painting Painting Rose Still Life

Blowsy Rosies

Blowsie Roses, oil on Gesobord panel, 6x6"
Blowsy Roses, oil on Gessobord panel, 6x6"

Blowsy. [Adjective: (of a woman) Coarse, untidy, and red-faced.] That’s just what these roses were when I picked them from my poor neglected rose bush: brightly colored but messy and past their prime; yet they were just fine as my model.

It seems like once I gave myself permission to work on a painting as long as I wanted to, I’ve started being able to finish them more quickly. And it’s not just the small size;  I’ve spent hours and days on other 6×6″ paintings in the past.

It could have gone even more quickly than the three hours I spent on it, had I left some of my earliest brushstrokes alone. I just find it hard to believe they were right the first time, even though that was my goal with this painting: to put down the right strokes with the right color, temperature and value and then leave them alone. (Or scrape off the stroke immediately if it’s wrong and replace it with the “right” one, rather than adding more and more paint, which eventually leads to making mud.)

I also tried to focus on using warm and cool colors to shape the form, along with the dark and light values. I’d also like to cite my inspiration for this painting, Kathryn Townsend, whose flower paintings mesmerize me.

Categories
Art theory Flower Art Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Baby Hydrangea: Little Pitchers Have Big Ears

Baby Hydrangea, oil on panel, 6x6"
Baby Hydrangea, oil on panel, 6x6"

I’d heard that saying before, “Little Pitchers Have Big Ears,” but without giving it any real consideration, assumed it had something to do with Little League baseball pitchers. Wrong. According to The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, “Adults must be careful about what they say within the hearing of children. The saying refers to the large handles (ears) sometimes attached to small vessels…” like this little pitcher.

My other reference for the saying is the refrain in John Prine’s touching song, “Sam Stone” about a Viet Nam vet returning home.

Hydrangea and pitcher preliminary sketches
Hydrangea and pitcher preliminary sketches

I was looking for flowers to paint and this little lavender hydrangea was hiding at the bottom of the bush all by itself. I did the value/composition sketches above and set about painting, completely forgetting the first step that I usually find helpful: doing a quick and simple 2-value block in using thinned paint in one color (usually Ultramarine Blue) first.

I think it worked out OK anyway, and in the next painting I did (still waiting to get photographed) I remembered to do that.

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Bookbinding Drawing Illustration Illustration Friday Monoprint Other Art Blogs I Read photoshop Quick Sketch Still Life Virtual Paint-Out

Boring? Not!

Peet's Coffee Corner, El Cerrito, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
View north from Peet's Coffee, El Cerrito, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

At first glance, the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Carlson in El Cerrito is boring, boring, boring: a wide busy avenue with boxy buildings. But when viewed on a lovely summer day from a cafe table outside Peet’s Coffee with pen in hand, it transforms itself into a sketching delight full of fun details and color.

San Pablo Ave. Wells Fargo, El Cerrito, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
View South down San Pablo Ave. Wells Fargo, El Cerrito, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

Looking the other way down San Pablo, the Wells Fargo Bank building holds little hope for drawing inspiration. But start sketching and it too transforms itself. There are trees of all kinds and colors. A cerulean sky with only a hint of clouds, a pink apartment building and a gold dentist office. Sun, shadows, banners.

Not boring! I don’t think I’ve ever felt bored when I was sketching. Years ago a friend told me that when I was sketching I looked like I was roller-skating. Whee! Let’s skate!

Categories
Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Red, White and Blueberries

Red, White and Blueberries, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Red, White and Blueberries, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

Happy 4th of July, whether it’s Independence Day where you are not. Why not make every day Independence Day and claim your right to freedom from whatever holds you back?

Today I chose the freedom of sketching blueberries in my sketchbook instead of struggling with other “work” I’ve been doing in the studio. I’m also trying to claim independence from the “shoulds” that are telling me I should be at a barbeque, roasting wieners, drinking beer, and waving flags.

It looks like the Bay Area will at last have a non-foggy 4th and if so I’ll be heading up to Albany Hill to watch the fireworks around the Bay Area. And now I declare independence from my computer!

Categories
Art supplies Lighting Oil Painting Painting Still Life Studio

Meyer Lemons Bowled and New Adjustable Still Life Table

Meyer Lemons Bowled, oil on linen, 8x8"
Meyer Lemons Bowled, oil on linen panel, 8x8"

These lemons came from my little Meyer Lemon tree which produces the sweetest, plumpest lemons. I planted the tree from a small pot about 5 years ago and now it’s as tall as me. I really like the Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel I painted this on, except that it takes much longer for the paint to dry than when painting on Gessobord because it doesn’t sink in to the oil priming.

Still life table beside easel
A= Still life table beside easel

I set up the bowl of lemons on my new rolling, adjustable (from 28″ to 45″ high) still life stand, also known as an Over the Bed Table on Amazon where I got it with free shipping (good thing because it’s not light). Since I was taking a picture of it I thought I’d also describe the other items in the photo since I’m so happy with my painting set up.

A = Rolling, adjustable height Still life stand/Over the Bed Table

B = Karen Jurick’s “Alter Easel” which I love for holding thin panels instead of trying to balance them between the narrow supports on my easel. Works great!

C = Daylight Studio Lamp for lighting the still life (not visible is the Daylight Artists Easel Lamp that is attached to the top of my easel to light the painting (that I was given for free by the company and liked so much I bought the standing light).

D = A silly maul stick (just the top shows) that doesn’t work very well. I’ve seen people using canes instead, hooked over the top of the painting to provide support for your hand when painting details.

E = Masterson Artist Palette Seal with a lid that seals like Tupperware and with a pad of palette paper inside (the palette paper is a recent discovery that I LOVE because it saves so much time from having to clean the palette.) I keep the palette in my freezer when I have paint left over. Once thawed (in a few minutes) it’s in perfect condition for the next painting session. The palette is on top of an upside down plastic drawer from a defunct rolling cart to raise it up high enough for me to use without bending over (I’m 5’10”).

Not lettered but in the picture is the beautiful silk sari fabric my friend Barbara gave me for my birthday for just this purpose and the ancient microwave cart that holds my palette and supplies. Not shown is the rolling plastic taboret I’ve had for 20 years that holds my brushes and other stuff.

OK, I know I’m a gadget girl and many of these things are not necessary. But I feel like painting (and life) are hard enough, why not have great tools to make it easier? There are lots more pictures of my studio under the category “Studio.”

Categories
Art supplies Art theory Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Oil Painting Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Learning Leaning Apples on Grannie’s Linen

"Leaning Learning Apples", oil on linen, 8x8"
"Learning Leaning Apples", oil painting on linen panel, 8x8"

I’m happier with this painting of apples on a linen tablecloth embroidered by my grandmother. After the mighty fail of my cringe-worthy zombie apple painting, I got really curious. What was I missing? Clearly my drawing hadn’t been careful enough, per my friend Michael’s appraisal of the painting: “Uh, what is it?” And I know it was way overworked.

So before trying to paint these apples again I sat down with my sketchbook, an apple and my Lamy Safari pen. (The note below about Cathy’s special pen was just me grabbing any old page in the sketchbook to try out her strange new pen when she handed it to me.)

Study for "Leaning and Learning Apples," ink & watercolor
Study for "Leaning Learning Apples," ink & watercolor

I sketched one very dark purple delicious apple over and over in ink, trying to understand what I was seeing, where the planes changed, where the darks and lights were, trying not to get tricked by the reflections. That gave me a little more courage to try to paint the apples again in oil.

The painting at the top of the post was the result. This was a new painting surface for me: oil-primed linen on panel, surprisingly inexpensive (for linen), on sale at Jerrys Artarama. It was quite lovely to paint on. It was slippier than I was used to; the Ampersand Gessobord panels I usually use kind of “bite” the paint right off the brush and the oil primed linen allows it glide.

This painting is available on my DailyPaintworks gallery.

Categories
Painting Still Life

Leftover Lunchroom Apples (AKA the Zombie Apple Painting)

Leftover Lunchroom Apples #2, oil on board, 8x8"
Leftover Lunchroom Apples #2, oil on board, 8x8"

This is one of those zombie paintings that despite my best efforts to kill it, just wouldn’t die. I painted it again and again, changing the background colors, the shapes of the apples, the colors of the apples, the shadow shapes and colors. And in between painting sessions it sat there on my easel taunting me.

I was determined to finish it today no matter what. So I photographed it, imported it into Photoshop and experimented there with colors and shape variations until I found a scheme I liked. Then I applied those changes in paint on my canvas. (I was tired of the actual background colors which were the same as Apples, Delicious.)

Update 6/12:  I asked a friend to be an innocent bystander and give me his honest opinion of the painting still on the easel. He said, “Uh, well…what are they?” When I said apples he said “Really? They don’t look like apples. But I like the red color.” FAIL? Yes.

It’s probably better to make many paintings instead of getting stuck painting the same one multiple times. But I get determined to figure out what is making me unhappy with a painting and to try to resolve the problems. Sometimes I discover there’s a fatal flaw in the composition or drawing that can’t be fixed with paint (and I fear this is one of those?). Then I just try to learn from that mistake for the next time and accept I’ve gone as far as I can.

I’d like to give the apples one more try (on a fresh canvas), to see if after all this practice I can do a fresh, quick painting that flows instead of lurches along in true zombie fashion.