Tag: Oil Painting

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Animals Daily Paintworks Challenge Oil Painting Painting

Busby Berkeley: The Cat

Busby Berkeley, Oil on Panel, 6x6" - Portrait of a Cat
Busby Berkeley: The Cat, Oil on Panel, 6x6"

When my tabby cat Busby Berkeley decided to sit in my still life light box and pose, I decided to paint him. After all, what’s more of a still life than a cat (except when they’re running through the house and pouncing on wrinkles in the covers when you’re trying to sleep)?

I painted from the photo below, displayed on my monitor near my easel.

Busby still life
Busby still life

Busby spends most of the day sleeping in the closet, my bureau, or a kitchen cabinet so painting him from life wasn’t an option. Even drawing him from life is tough. In the same way cats chose to sit on the one person who doesn’t like cats, they also get up and leave if they notice you watching them.

This was the first time I’d painted a cat in oils and it was fun and challenging. I’m about to try another from a different Busby photo to see if what I learned the first time will make it easer the second time. This painting is available here on my Daily Paintworks page where I am in the process of placing selected paintings from the past along with current work as I paint it, when/if I’m ready to let it go.

Categories
Animals Daily Paintworks Challenge Food sketch Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Happy Boy Radishes in Oil (Paint) and Still Life with Cat

Happy Boy Farms Radishes, oil on panel, 8x8"
Happy Boy Farms Radishes, oil on panel, 8x8"

Every time I paint I learn something. This time I learned some new tricks with different brushes and mediums and also about how much easier it is to paint in a good mood than a bad one. I painted the radishes for last week’s Daily Paintworks challenge, “Paint your vegetables.” It is available there on my new Daily Paintworks page.

I painted the radishes over Sunday’s painting of cucumbers that didn’t work because of my bad composition (or my bad mood when I was painting it) not sure which. I liked the lemon slice in the painting so I took a photo before I scraped off the panel for reuse.  Here is the happy little corner of the painting with the lemon slice (and without the two big ugly cukes at the top):

Cucumbers and Lemon, section of trashed painting
Cucumbers and Lemon, corner of painting

And here is the promised Still Life With Cat, shot when I put the radishes back in the fridge and silly Busby decided my still life light box would make a nice kitty sauna.

Busby still life
Still Life with Cat

I’d probably look grouchy too if someone tried to take a picture of me in the sauna!

Categories
Oil Painting Painting People Portrait

Portrait of Violet: An Angel in Jammies and Tutu

Portrait of Violet: An Angel in Jammies and Tutu; a little girl playing dress-up.

When one of my sketch group members sent me this photo of her little girl, I had to paint it, despite having never painted my own kids (except as they appeared in a dream once, as a bear and a tiger).

The original photo was taken on an iPhone with a busy background of kid’s toys and furniture. I experimented in Photoshop with different backgrounds and color schemes. I tried some in paint. But in the end I chose this simple grayish-warmish-whitish background.

I thought about putting some of her toys from the photo in the painting but decided I like the way she’s alone in an empty space. It reminds me of my own childhood photos where I usually looked kind of alone and perplexed about the big world around me. I guess that’s an example of how whatever the artist paints, she’s painting herself too.

Categories
Animals Bay Area Parks Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Walnut Creek

Landscape Painting with Coyote Soundtrack

Borges Ranch View, oil on Raymar panel, 6x8"
Borges Ranch View, oil on Raymar panel, 6x8"

Last Saturday my plein air group met at Borges Ranch in Walnut Creek’s Shell Ridge Open Space. It’s a beautiful place that feels far away out in the country, and is surrounded by strange, tall hills covered in a hundred shades of green.

While I was painting I kept hearing the strangest sounds: yips, yelps, squeals and howls. I ruled out the sheep, goats, pigs and roosters and decided it was either the world’s most annoying beagle or a coyote. Later I asked the ranger who confirmed that there were three coyote families in the three nearby hills. He said they all have pups in their dens and are very talkative now. Want to hear a coyote? Click here to go to a site with a coyote sound clip.

To see wonderful photos and stories about life with an adopted coyote who was orphaned at 10 days old when his parents were shot for killing sheep, please visit The Daily Coyote blog, “a story of love, survival and trust.”

Now back to the painting–I tried to simplify, avoid details and focus on color, light and big shapes. The sky was completely covered in a thick layer of clouds and I noticed a painting “rule” in action: cool light creates warm shadows (and vice versa). Although the heavy cloud cover meant there weren’t obvious shadows, I could see how darker areas leaned toward red while areas in light were cooler (e.g. lemon yellow, not an orange-yellow).

When I got home I broke my rule of not touching up plein air studies and fussed with it, eventually ruining it and throwing it in the trash. I’m glad I took a photo first…and that I had the joy of painting to a coyote soundtrack!

Categories
Flower Art Glass Oil Painting Painting Rose Still Life

Roses Requiring Reverence (or at least to be painted)

Rose Reverence, oil on Gessobord panel, 10x10"
Rose Reverence, oil on Gessobord panel, 10x10" - SOLD

My riotously rampant roses were bursting forth from their bushes so I had to put other plans aside and paint them. Their fruity scent was as intoxicating as their vibrant colors. These were two different kinds of roses, both of which change colors and shape as they open so I had to work quickly to complete this painting in one session.

I left the still life set up just in case I needed to fix anything the next morning. But of course by then they were completely different roses. And the painting was complete.

Categories
Art theory Oil Painting Painting People People at Work Portrait Series

Amtrak Conductor, Capitol Corridor: People at Work Series

Capitol Corridor Amtrak Conductor, Oil on stretched canvas, 16x12"
Capitol Corridor Amtrak Conductor, Oil on stretched canvas, 16x12"

When my Urban Sketchers group took the train to Sacramento for some sketching (posted here and here) I made a pest of myself taking pictures of our conductor, chasing him around the train and station. A train conductor for over 40 years, he kindly put up with me.

The painting above is my second attempt at painting the conductor (after working and reworking and eventually abandoning a previous canvas). I painted this in one day, intending to return and finish it after putting in my time at my “day job.” When I returned to the studio I realized that I’d said what I wanted to say with the painting and had nothing more to add. I was done.

This was really thrilling as it helped to reinforce my recent discovery that the path I want to follow in oil painting is to work directly, alla prima (all at once).  I find it so much more fun than fussing around with many layers, for many days, until everything is “perfect” (otherwise known as overworked, over-detailed and ultimately, boring to look at it because there’s nothing for the viewer’s mind to contribute).

Below is my unfinished, abandoned first attempt (scraped and repainted multiple times) from a dim, blurry bad photo shot with poor lighting inside the train.

Incomplete first attempt, oil on canvas 16x12"
Incomplete first attempt, oil on canvas 16x12"

I included way too much of the train in the composition because I was interested in the light and reflections on the ceiling. But painting all those seats was really boring. Eventually I figured out this version just wasn’t going to work and I started over with a better photo, cropped in more closely, for the painting at the top of the post.

I’ve been taking photos of people at work in my neighborhood that will be part of this series. Next up the butcher and the coffee barista.

Categories
Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Virtual Paint-Out

Cape Town Company Gardens (Virtual Paint-Out)

Capetown Company Gardens, South Africa, oil on panel, 9x12"
Capetown Company Gardens, South Africa, oil on panel, 9x12"

During a very rainy week it’s been wonderful to have this sunny view to paint from Google Street View for Virtual Paintout‘s March location of Cape Town, South Africa. It will be interesting to see how (and hopefully if) my winter practice with landscape painting in oil carries over to painting real landscapes outdoors. Now that the rainy season seems at last to be over I will soon find out!

A note about the color in the photo: despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get the foreground shadow on the path to perfectly match the color in the painting which is a little more purple and a little less bright.

Here’s the original Google Streetview image:

Google Streetview image: Capetown
Google Streetview image: Capetown

If you’re interested in the actual location, just click here for the map. And if you’d like to purchase this painting for $100, just click here.

Categories
Art theory Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Apple Can Brush (huh?)

Apple Can Brush, oil on panel 8x8"
Apple Can Brush, oil on panel, 8x8"

I know the title sounds like random word salad but since the still life objects are equally random I think it is fitting. The tin can in the painting is from a can of Trader Joe’s Split Pea Soup.

I was fidgeting with the can while the soup was warming in a bowl in the office microwave and in the process removed the label. I was struck by how pretty the can was and so to my office mates’ amusement, I washed out the can to take it home and paint it. It needed companions in the composition; an apple was handy as was a paint brush.

Apple Can Brush, drawn on panel with pastel pencil
Apple Can Brush, drawn on panel with pastel pencil

I focused on seeing planes values, and putting the paint down and leaving it. The picture above shows the way I sketched out the composition with the planes on the panel with pastel pencil before painting.

I really enjoyed the process and the results. Can’t ask for more than that!

Categories
Art theory Daily Paintworks Challenge Oil Painting Painting

The Color of White (Warm)

White Pitcher on Provence Pattern, oil on panel, 7x5"
White Pitcher on Provence Pattern, oil on panel, 7x5"

The Daily Paintworks folks are hosting weekly painting exercises that offer an opportunity to practice a particular painting challenge. Last week it was painting a white object sitting on a patterned fabric using only primary colors and white.

I’d found this funny, funky (chipped) pitcher at my local thrift shop and thought it would make a good subject for this exercise, along with a Provencal print tablecloth.

White pitcher preliminary sketch on panel
White pitcher preliminary sketch on panel

I sketched in the shapes with pastel pencil onto my Gessobord panel and then used some thinned Ultramarine Blue to block in the shadows on the pitcher. I like the way this looks so nice and sketchy.

This was another fun painting. I love how oil painting is getting to be more fun and less of a struggle (less of, but not without, that’s for sure!).

Since I tend to lose interest if something is too easy or there’s nothing more to learn, knowing that painting will always provide a challenge and there will always be more to learn, is a good thing.

If you’d like to buy this unframed 7×5″ painting for $60, just click here.

Categories
Daily Paintworks Challenge Oil Painting Painting Still Life

The Color of White (Cool)

White teapot on wrapping paper, oil on panel, 6x6"
White teapot on wrapping paper, oil on panel, 6x6"

The Daily Paintworks‘ challenge last week was to paint a white object sitting on patterned fabric using only primary colors and white. For this attempt I decided to use some turquoise, patterned wrapping paper instead. The wrapping paper had clever little snowmen all over it but after giving one snowman a try, I realized I didn’t have the patience or interest to try to paint all the details on them (top hat, scarf, etc.).

So I gave myself permission to abstract the snowmen into the circular, swirly shapes I saw reflected on the teapot. Since it was meant to be a painting exercise, I didn’t get too concerned with perfecting the painting. I just wanted to experiment with seeing reflections and building the form of a white object on a cool background.