Categories
Art Oil Painting Procreate on iPad

Another Semi-Fail Flower

Matilija Poppy, oil on canvas, 8.5” x 11.5 inches
Matilija Poppy, oil on canvas, 8.5” x 11.5 inches

The only thing I like in this painting is the Matilija poppy and maybe the shadows. I’ve painted Matilija Poppies (much better) before like this one that also appears in the book “The Watercolor Artists Bible” along with several other of my watercolors. For some reason I find it much harder to paint flowers successfully in oils.

I started this mostly yucky painting by first using Procreate to design a color plan to work from (below) that I unfortunately didn’t exactly stick to. I like the digital version much better. Then I did a black and white underpainting in acrylic before painting in oils.

Color plan done in Procreate and black and white photo for values
Color plan done in Procreate and black and white photo for values
Photo of set up
Photo of set up
Categories
Art Flower Art Oil Painting Painting

Hydrangeas with Post-It Note

Hydrangeas with Post-it Note, oil on Gessobord panel, 10x8" Available
Hydrangeas with Post-it Note, oil on Gessobord panel, 10×8″

My hydrangea plant lives just outside my kitchen window and each year I enjoy painting it. This time I was going for a more abstracted feel with soft, soothing beautiful colors and just the tease of a bent post-it note.

I hope all the rain we’ve had this winter will help it continue to produce fabulous blooms! This painting is available in my DPW gallery.

I love the way the petals range from pink to blue to lavender from the soft yellow when they first sprout. Below is a photo of the setup.

Photo of set up
Categories
Art Flower Art Oil Painting Still Life

Iris in an Aqua Cup and Bonus Pear Painting

Iris in an Aqua Cup, oil on unstretched canvas, 12x9"
Iris in an Aqua Cup, oil on unstretched canvas, 12×9″

I was thrilled when my irises bloomed again this year after failing to do so last spring. I love the warm light I was able to capture in this painting. It went through a lot of changes before I finally settled on this version. (Available on my DPW gallery here.)

Bonus Pear, oil on Gessobord, 6x6"
Bonus Pear, oil on Gessobord, 6×6″

This was just a little love letter to a pretty pear. (Available on my DPW Gallery here.)

Categories
Art Glass Oil Painting Procreate on iPad Still Life

Hanging Lemons: Two paintings and a Candy Jar

Lemon, Candy Dish and a Cosmetic Swab, oil painting on unstretched canvas, 16x12”
Lemon, Candy Dish and a Cosmetic Swab, oil painting on unstretched canvas, 16×12”

I had so much fun painting this hanging lemon and grandma’s candy dish and the previous hanging lemon oil study below. Also scroll down for the fun Procreate color studies and sketches and WIP photos.  I know the candy dish is wonky but I decided I like the wavy distortions.  I’m not sure which I prefer more, the iPad color study or this painting (which is available at my DPW gallery here.)

I’d love to know which you prefer: iPad painting or oil painting? And here is the little hanging lemon painting I did earlier:

Hanging Lemons, oil on Gessobord panel, 7x5"
Hanging Lemons, oil on Gessobord panel, 7×5″

This little painting came first; a fun experiment in composition and hanging things from the wall to paint. The painting is available at my DPW gallery here.

Original color study sketch in Procreate on the iPad. Print is available upon request.
Original color study sketch in Procreate on the iPad. Print is available upon request.

In some ways I prefer this chunky quick study more than the oil painting. I am working towards finding a way to apply what I’ve been doing on the iPad to my oil paintings. Next up on the blog are a series of more of these iPad sketches.

Categories
Art Flower Art Oil Painting Still Life

Spring Yellow Daffodils

Spring Yellow Daffodils with Lemon Wedge
Spring Yellow Daffodils with Lemon Wedge, oil on Gessobord panel, 12×9″

I tried painting these several ways, with just the vase and flowers, with a whole lemon, and then a lemon wedge. It’s all about yellow. And springtime. And daffodils. (Available on my DPW gallery here.)

Photo of set up
Photo of set up

Categories
Art

Rose in Mom’s Milk Glass Vase

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.
Rose in Mom’s Milkglass Vase, Procreate sketch on iPad.

iPad on the easel with still life set up
iPad on the easel with still life set up

Photo of the set up
Photo of the set up

Categories
Art Flower Art

First Calla Lily

First Calla, oil on panel, 10x8"
First Calla, oil on panel, 10×8″

Continuing on with my big May catch-up on posting work from the past few months. It was a gloomy winter day but one of the volunteer calla lilies was blooming and I had to paint it. This was a one-session alla prima oil painting.

Photo of still life set up
Photo of still life set up

Categories
Art Flower Art Oil Painting

Irises on White Cloth

Irises on a White Cloth, oil on panel, 14x11" Available here.
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.

Categories
Art

Roses in Mom’s Antique Yellow Glass Bowl

Rose in Mom's Antique Yellow Glass Bowl, 8x8" Oil on Panel
Rose in Mom’s Antique Yellow Glass Bowl, 8×8″ Oil on Panel

I’ve been working on doing Alla Prima (all at once) paintings in order to become more decisive about the paint I put down instead of noodling around. It requires getting the drawing right, understanding what I’m seeing and if it fails, starting again instead of trying to keep fixing, which usually goes badly. This was the third attempt at painting a rose in my mom’s yellow glass bowl. The previous attempts and photos of the set up (as the rose opened) are below.

Categories
Oil Painting Still Life

Queen Pomegranate and Princess Persimmon (Painted Thrice)

Queen Pom and Princess Persimmon, oil on panel, 8x8"
Queen Pom and Princess Persimmon, oil on panel, 8×8 inches (Available to purchase here)

There was something regal about these two, hence the name, despite the queen sitting in a soap dish, not a throne. I started out thinking “values and planes” and then, as usual, got seduced by color and detail. I did manage to keep some of the planes I saw in this pomegranate (which was becoming more faceted as it became more elderly, having been painted a few times over the past couple weeks). However, I’m not sure the painting actually benefitted from leaving the planes (or so many of them) visible.

Below is a photo of the set up and below that the two previous pom/persimmon paintings that were a nice warmup and introduction to the subject, though perhaps not terribly successful in terms of paint application, composition and/or drawing.

Photo of setup for Queen Pom
Photo of setup for Queen Pom

4 Poms on a Black Plate, oil on panel, 8x10"
4 Poms on a Black Plate, oil on panel, 8×10″

3 Poms on a Black Box, oil on panel, 8x10"
3 Poms on a Black Box, oil on panel, 8×10″

3 Poms on a Box painting on easel and still life set up
3 Poms on a Box painting on easel and still life set up