Mushrooms and Red Onion

I wanted to paint something different and both the baby bella mushrooms and the red onion were new subjects for me.

A save the date reminder: for all those in the New Haven, Connecticut area, the opening reception for my upcoming show "The Art of Everyday", will be Sunday, April 1oth, 1 -4 pm at the DaSilva Gallery. Please come and say hello.

Tall Bouquet

There is only one painting above, the final version is to the left. Usually, I work on a painting for 1 or 2 days, 3 at the most. (The advantage to working small.) But this was a painting that I was never really satisfied with and whenever I was in the mood I would change it a bit--take out a flower, put it back in, move the stems around, change the highlight, etc. Anyway, it was time to stop.

Ranunculus

Ranunculuses versus ranunculi-- apparently both are correct but both sound funny. This is the painting I had just completed before moving on to the Lincoln challenge.

Lincoln

The Daily Paintworks site currently has a paint Lincoln challenge and since I happened to have leftover paint on my palette and since I had not done any self portrait paintings lately (as I promised myself), I gave Lincoln a go. This was on a black gessoed panel so the dark bits were lifted back out. The greens and reds were leftovers from a ranunculus flower painting that I had just finished. Bizarre looking but fun and no disrespect intended to Mr. Lincoln.

Strawberry and Pear

Although, in the end, I was pleased with this painting, it was a struggle. The background color changed several times -- initially it was a much warmer color, almost a flesh tone. You can see remnants of it, mixed in with the gray.

Sieve

I was looking around the house for another object for the "old stuff" series. A friend who was staying with us suggested this sieve. The challenge was the mesh part. Luckily, the texture of the cotton canvas was mesh like enough to take care of that problem, otherwise I wouldn't have known what to do.

Red Carnation

Back to a very dark background. It seems I lean toward the extremes of a very light or very dark background. Perhaps, a mid-tone is in order soon.

Two Cups

Ok, I promise, this is the last cherry painting -- at least for a while. The top cup was actually initially angled towards me but I was having a bad ellipse day so I angled it away. Bad ellipse days are much worse than bad hair days.

Tall Pear

I am making use of those few cherries I bought. Think I can get one more painting out of them.

Cherries on Stripes

I was amazed to find cherries at a local market (they must be imported). Couldn't resist buying a few--needed something cheery to paint while house bound by snow.

Orange Mum

The orange mum, front and center, wasn't quite that big relative to the other flowers. It just had a dominant personality that was hard to ignore.

Paint Brush

This is one of the "old stuff found around the house" series, although I actually found this well-worn paint brush in my parents' basement. The background was done first with a thin layer of red acrylic. Then on top of that is a layer of thick blue acrylic, which was applied with a palette knife. I used acrylic because it would have taken weeks, if not months for oil to dry. The brush was painted with oils.

Yellow Pear

Had one of those weeks when time and ideas were scarce. I chose similar subjects from a prior painting-- changed the orientation and background colors and the above painting is the result.

Old Blue Bottle

Initially, this painting was more realistic but also more timid. I loaded up the paint on the blue bottle and eliminated fussy details elsewhere. I like the reincarnation better. I suspect I will have to "oil out" this painting as clearly some areas are drying more matte than others.

Self Portrait

I am posting this self portrait because I ran across an artist whose work I really admire. She is Catherine Kehoe who was born in Connecticut and teaches at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her still life paintings are great but her self portraits are particularly engaging. In an interview, she said that she does her self portraits quickly with the paint left over from her other paintings. Although I suspect that I will not repeat this exercise often, this week I thought I would try to follow her example.

Cup, Pear and Lemon

This is the painting completed just before Christmas. As in most of my paintings, the light source is on the left. This time, taking a clue from Qiang-Huang, I blocked the light from falling on the background on the left side of the painting.

White Cup with Shells

I am not posting today's painting because I am not quite sure it is finished; I need to look at it again over breakfast. (The kitchen is the place where the final decisions are made.) This painting was actually done right before the similar painting with the little pitcher. I think I prefer this one because of the more subdued colors of the background and tabletop.

Red Handle

I was reading Hawthorne on Painting, first published in 1938. In the introduction, he talks about seeing the beauty of the ugly and the commonplace; "it is better to make a big thing out of a little subject than to make a little thing out of a big one."

This red handled fork is old, fairly beat up and at one time was probably commonplace.

Daisy with Limes

The above painting is now hanging in an eight person group show at Case Memorial Library in Orange, CT for the month of December. The group is the Artclectics whose members have been painting and drawing together once a week for over 5 years. The Artclectics work in a variety of mediums and their work ranges from abstract to representational. Come join us if you can for the opening reception on Thursday, December 9th from 5 to 7 p.m. in the library's second floor meeting room.

Chicken Little

We use this little pitcher for maple syrup but I thought he looked better with eggshells than with scattered pancakes. This painting was done a few days ago. Yesterday's painting was a scraper--all the paint scraped off with the palette knife after many hours of work. I think everyone who paints has had that experience (well, maybe almost everyone).