Above is my lovely plastic skull replica I named Morton Skullman with a bouquet of hydrangeas from my garden in my grannie’s milk glass vase. I’m continuing to experiment with simplifying light and dark and abstraction.
LOL! I just realized that Morton’s nickname, “Mort” means “DEAD” in French!
Below is Mort with a cantaloupe that’s bigger than his head and below that is Mortie wearing Grandpa Simon’s old fez from his days as a Mason.
Another couple of days worth of stuff on my dining room table drawn before breakfast, with cantaloupe making a guest appearance.
I’ve been thinking about still life painting and what, for me, makes it fun to paint and enjoyable to look at. Number one is color that pleases me and a feeling of light and space and a close second is strong value contrast (between dark and light). Traditional or classic still life paintings often have dark backgrounds and somber colors and I’ve realized that’s just not me. That style seems very masculine to me; perhaps because the old masters were mostly men and even back then men liked their “man caves.”
I want to find a way to paint in oils that incorporates what I like so much about my watercolor paintings, which have mostly been light with bright colors painted on a background of white unpainted paper. Another difference is that in oils I’ve tended to work small, painting objects smaller than actual size, and in watercolor I’ve typically painted much larger than life size. I’m going to be exploring working larger and lighter and in colors that make me feel joyful.
This painting is available on DailyPaintworks here
Jana Bouc, Artist 