“Spring Rose Series #1”, Oil on Linen Panel, 10×8”
My roses have started their spring parade of long stem blooms and I can’t resist painting them even though I’m allergic to their scent. This painting started a whole series that went from OK (this one) to 5 total fails (each painted on top of the previously scraped one), to one I declared successful, which I’ll post next time.
See photos of the setup and work in progress below.
Lemons, Hydrangeas and a Bottle Cap, more random table stuff. Procreate on the iPad.
A sunny morning, two bowls of lemons and a vase of hydrangeas. What could be better than sunshine and happy summer colors. The series of digital still life paintings I’ve been posting were done last summer while my kitchen was being remodeled and I was using my studio as my living space so it was easier to paint digitally than on canvas.
It also meant that during the remodeling months from June to October my life was so crazy I didn’t really have time or mental bandwidth to post to my blog, hence finally playing catch-up now.
Rose in Mom’s Milkglass Vase, oil on Dura-Lar, 12×9″
This was a fun two afternoon painting. Below are the steps in the work in progress and photo of the setup. This was painted about a year after my mother passed away. It’s poignant to be painting some of her special glassware.
Rose in Mom’s Milkglass Vase, Procreate sketch on iPad.
Irises on a White Cloth, oil on panel, 14×11″ Available here.
I painted these from life, but first did a value sketch in Procreate to help me stay within the range of values I chose for the painting. That’s a concept I’ve been pondering: that you can design whatever value range you want for a painting, from mostly light to mostly dark, and then mix the paint colors accordingly. I printed out the Procreate value sketch and put it on my easel for reference as you can see in the work in progress photos below.
Bouquet for Busby, ink and watercolor, 11×8.5 inches
On this shortest day of the year here are some cheery flowers to brighten the darkness.
While I was away visiting my mom last weekend, my cat-sitter Rachel (of McGraw’s Paws) cat-sat for the first time since Busby my tabby cat died. She was sad not seeing him too and left me this stunning bouquet of flowers in his honor and a lovely card with these wise and beautiful words about sorrow that are worth remembering for any loss:
‘When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
Every Day in May 4: Spice Bottles, ink and watercolor, 8×5 in
I have a whole rack of Penzeys spices but these are my favorites that sit out on the counter for daily use. Their pepper is nothing like the tasteless stuff from the supermarket; it has wonderful flavor and I put it on almost everything. Their cinnamon is sweet and delicious and the Sandwich Sprinkle is great on salads, veggies and meat.
Every Day in May 3: Curtain, ink and watercolor, 8×10 in
I have such a tiny bathroom I had to sit on the sink to draw this. My favorite part was drawing the funny patterns on the glass blocks in the window. When I remodeled the bathrooms in my duplex I requested glass blocks in the shower and a window that opens set inside the glass blocks. The wavy glass was fun to draw and is meant to provide privacy but in reality, it’s not perfect. Good thing the neighborhood doesn’t have a few of the window! Also featured in the sketch is my Black and Decker dog washing shower attachment that makes it super easy to wash my dog and she loves hopping in the tub for her spa treatment.
The branches I snipped from a tree in Berkeley provided many opportunities to sketch and paint. The first were watercolor sketches. Then I did these two oil paintings and some other sketches I’ll post later. Two of my favorite things to paint: flowers and glass. Crab Apple Paired (above) is available here.
Sake Bottle with Flowering Crab Apple Under Warm Light, oil on archival panel, 6×6
This sake bottle is from a nice sushi dinner I had with my son. He’s much more knowledgeable about such things so he ordered the sake. I was delighted by its wonderful peach colored bottle with a kind of etched surface. I knew it would be fun to paint. I used a very warm light for this still life set up which made everything a little peachy. This little painting is available here.
Jana Bouc, Artist 