"Lemon Tea Bag"

Well, I have been away from my blogging for almost 3 months now. Nor have I been painting much during this time. I've hit a real block on what to paint. Putting a still life together to paint is such a difficult task for me. I have painted a few still life pieces, but have been so disappointed with the outcome. I was doing other things during this time, like making quilts and listing in my shop on etsy for the Holidays. But I was afraid to paint. So I figured that I needed a big break in my routine, to focus on other things, and return to painting when I was excited about something to paint. Today I was excited about painting and it didn't matter what was in front of me. This is the last piece I did several months ago.

"Kissing Eggs"

And then my inspiration light went out.

"Mummy's Apples" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

I appear to be working a lot with apples these days, but I really wanted to get to know the apple well. And how to better understand than to draw or paint. I love the shape of apples and how different varieties are rounder than others. The Red Delicious are not round at all, but have odd angles and bumps on the bottoms and tops. The Granny Smith's, which I have painted here, are nice and round with a wonderful hue of green throughout the skin. These mums have been in bloom for me for over 2 weeks and I should have painted them with more frequency. As the Holidays are approaching, I'm trying to come up with some new and different things to paint. Perhaps I should focus more on color rather than object.

"Red and Greens" 8" x 8' oil on gessobord

Sometimes during the Holiday Season I will paint a candy cane. Like the mercury balls, why not take advantage of using these unusual objects as my subject for a few weeks out of the year. Though the candy cane is front and center, I did not want to make the painting scream Christmas. Hard not to, huh? Anyway I enjoyed the process, especially with it submerged in clear glass. 

"Opposing Teams" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Here we are at that time of the year where all the teams come out wearing opposing colored shirts. I picked blue and gold with a magenta referee. I always think these Christmas balls are going to be a cinch to paint and I'm not sure if it's best to see each ball as a solid value and keep all the colors of that ball one value....or to go outside the predominant value. I will keep trying with these. I cannot draw a circle, but I can paint one. Why is that?

"Unscrambled" 8" x 8"

Once again, I'm painting eggs. I usually go back to eggs when I cannot get any other composition to work. The fork, I meant, to come more forward. I guess the way to do that is to make the end larger...foreshortening!

"Almost to the Top"

Well, this has been an interesting week. So many people have been devastated by Hurricane Sandy hitting New England. My area has had much flooding, trees down and power lost, but mostly things are OK. No water, electricity, flush, heat, so I have done no painting. But I do have some pieces I have yet to post. Stacking up the cups again and working on the rose here. 

"And Then She Blew Her Top"

Not much to say here but that I tried unsuccessfully to peel this orange in one piece in a circle.

"Mother May I?"

I've been wanting to paint one of my Steiff animals for awhile, so I threw in the apple to give a sense of scale.  So, not a lot going on as far as problem solving, but painting some new things. I hope to have my power back on in a day or two, so I can get back to work.

"Apple Blossom"

Well, I have been busy painting a lot lately. Sunflowers!

"Among the Cups"

I especially like this one with the reflections going on. 

These stacking cups are a relatively new challenge for me. I think I posted one earlier.

"Sharing Sunflowers"

This is a little 6" x 6" I painted, which is an awfully small size to tackle, for I do not like working with small brushes.
I've lost my power 3 times since writing this, because of Sandy(the hurricane), so that's all for now.

"Beautiful Grapes" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

I'm working here with most of the grapes in shadow, but love the one that stands alone.

"The Rose with Little Grapes" 8" x 8" oil on gesoobord

I used a piece of glass to create the reflections under the rose and grapes. More difficult thean I thought it would be.

Studies

My workshop with Carol Marine was a  blast! I met a lot of wonderful artists and I've got to move on from this workshop, for I am so behind in posting. Here are some studies that I did working along the theme of "white cups".

"Second Choice" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

More flowers! I love painting this particular type of flower, especially the pink ones. The turquoise bottle complimented the color of the flower perfectly. I was with a terrific group of painters in Santa Fe and we were all working with flowers and glass this particular day. I love the energy in the air when painting with a group of artists that have the same goal.....a need to paint!

"First Pick" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Well, I'm back from my wonderful Advanced Workshop with Carol Marine in Santa Fe. Everything, including the meals, exceeded my expectations. Carol is a fabulous teacher and I met 13 other eager artists ready to shed their egos and allow for mistakes. And the week held quite an amount of diverse talent. One of the exercises we did was to work on painting glass with flowers. Painting clear glass has a different approach than painting colored glass. I was pleased with my study and only reminded myself how much I enjoy challenges.

"Ah, The Rose" small painting on gessobord

Roses, I find, very difficult to paint. So much form with translucent light passing through the petals. I still try to paint them once in awhile. I'm off tomorrow to Carol Marine's advanced painting workshop in Santa Fe. My suitcase is filled with tripod, palette, things to paint, lights, camera, backdrops, paints, brushes, bulbs, medium and a few clothes. I plan to post a few "experiments in learning" while away for the week. Yikes! I almost forgot to pack my confidence and patience. Carol is a wonderful teacher, for I was lucky enough to get a spot in her first workshop 5 years ago. I'm looking forward to meeting some wonderful painters there.

"Royal Pie" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

I just couldn't resist. Not about painting the pie, but having some to eat. Though under the lights with the color background I used, this pie was more than royal for an hour or two. The pedestal I used I got from my mother-in-law, and I find it one of my favorite silver pieces to paint. I love the shape of the base and pedestal. Here the pie is resting on a white plate, which covers all but a piece of the silver rim. I'm really working on forks now. I prefer to paint them foreshortened, but just getting the shape correct I find a challenge. 

"Mirror, Mirror" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Well, my stainless steel bowls arrived....even in different sizes! I know that I will be learning a lot about reflections in Carol Marine's workshop coming up in two weeks. Like what dominates? The reflection of an item or the actual item? Something has to play the dominant roll, and it's not both. Stay tuned.

"Stack" 8" x 10" oil on gessobord

So, it was late yesterday afternoon and I had attempted 3 paintings and wiped them all off already earlier in the day. I had an hour before the cats came begging for dinner. My kitchen counter top was full of things I've been listing this week for my vintage Etsy shop. And there I saw my next painting. Although often painted by others, I had never painted a stack of cups before. My goal on this painting was to say what I have to say in one hour. That's it! I was so pleased with the way the handles turned out and how the cups "rounded" well. Think I won't sell these in my shop now, but hang onto them for another try. My plums just passed their prime and carrots and orange popsicles are about all the food I have left in the house. So today is another "Well, what do I paint now."

"Eggs and Oranges" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Once again, I love to paint eggs-in-the-raw! I was trying, in this painting, to make the eggs on the plate more a part of the background....in the dark...coming into the light. But I just got carried away with the eggs and kept going back in to make them more important than I meant for them to be. I am still happy with the painting, but some how got off track with my excitement.

"Tomato Parade" 12" x 12" oil on gessobord

I've been wanting for awhile to paint something reflected in a bowl. Well, I finally got up the courage to set something up and just used my mixer bowl. I, being a quilter, have a good selection of solid half-yard pieces of fabric that I use in my still-life set ups. I really wanted to work with this piece of fabric which is called "chartreuse" by the manufacturers. Actually it's a Shot Cotton put out by Kaffe Fassett. The warp and the weft of the woven cloth are different colors. Up close the fabric looks quite different than seeing it from a short distance, when your eyes mix the two colors. I highly recommend this fabric for painters to use for still life set ups. But there are so many online quilting stores which supply hundreds of beautiful solids. I like to shop here for fabrics. anyway. I really wanted to challenge myself with mixing this chartreuse color on my palette, especially since I use no greens directly out of the tube. I work with blues and yellows. At the moment I could not recite to you the colors I used, but I had fun in the process.

"Tree in the Hedge" 10"x 10" oil on canvas board

I am a member of a plein air painting group that meets every week from spring to fall. The locations are pre-selected early in the spring. It's just a matter of showing up. I've gotten rather bored with painting boats in the water, not that I have that much experience doing so. But I love to paint architecture and big shapes. I was not feeling up to even getting out of the car this day to set up my easel, so I painted, in oils, from the front seat of my rather small car. Across the street from where i was parked was this huge hedge engulfing this tree. The thing on the right is part of a stockade fence at the foot of someone's driveway. I went home and painted another version of this without the fence and gave more detail to the hedge. 

"Painting Tomatoes" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Tomatoes are not as sweet tasting as they used to be when I was young. But these came from my local market, so I knew they were fresh picked and ready to eat. In the South we really knew how to make a great tomato sandwich!