Golden Apple and Vase

Sunflowers and Copper

Painting sunflowers can be hit or miss for me.  When I paint it as a sunflower, a circle with petals all around it, I won't be happy with the result.  It a think of it as an abstract mass with light and dark, I'll probably end up with a nice painting.

Sunflowered

I set up some vases and draped the sunflowers over it. As soon as I did it I felt I had my subject.

Outskirts of Town

At this time of the year in San Antonio, all the plants start turning brown because of the heat.  But because of all the rain we've had, everything is still really green.

Approaching Rain

This was painted about an hour before sunset. The sun was blocked by all the clouds which gave me a nice greyed tone. This allowed me more time to spend on the trees.

It's rare I put green on my palette. I used to use a lot of sap green in my paintings. I was in a workshop with a prominent landscape painter and she took one look at my landscapes and said, "You use a lot of sap green."
I stopped including that in my pallet after that.
In this painting, I mixed my greens from black, raw sienna, and lemon yellow...mostly.

Elegant Garlic

Usually I'll pair garlic up with an onion but this time I went for the vase.

Teapot and Rose

I looked at my roses I bought Tues and the petals were just falling off when I touched them.  I suddenly became inspired to paint. I used a greenish light on this and 60 minutes later I had this little gem of a painting. 

Mason Jar

I've always wanted to paint a mason jar.  I guess today was the day.  I wonder if I have time for one more?

Red Cabbage and Turnips

Mother's Roses Study

Bought these this morning.  I always use real flowers.  I had some different setups and I did another study but this was by far the best.

Silver and White Study

I actually did several small studies before this one.  I wiped the others away but hit the mark on this one.  It really shows what I was seeing.

Garlic Rosso

Out of the Bag

It's rare I buy turnips in a bag. It's a good thing I did.  When I opened the bag and took one out I quickly decided that was my subject - 1 turnip out of the bag and 3 turnips in the bag.  I set up my lighting and before much longer I was painting away on my canvas.  I don't think I've ever painted vegetables still in the bag before but it was a fun exercise.

Lighted Vase

 I bought this vase yesterday at a thrift store in San Antonio.  I used a warm greenish light on it.  It's a nice vase and I'm sure I'll include it in some bigger paintings later.

Roses Silhouette Study

This was started yesterday and finished today.  When I stopped last night the roses were too light so I wiped that part away.  This morning I picked up my brush and started painting the roses again.  It took quite a while because I like to paint for 10-20 minutes and take a long break.  This allows me to think about what I need to do before I make the next stroke.

Time for Coffee

I'm venturing out from the "copper" paintings.  I think this shows the light and reflective properties quite well.  It took me about an hour to paint this and another 3 hours to make small changes and add things.  I have to be careful because there is a point in which the painting quality is lessened by adding more.

Sunflowers

 This was painted with the Langnickel royal sable 5520 #4.  I used one brush almost on the entire painting.  This brush was purchased years ago. They don't make the royal sable anymore. As soon as I laid down the last stroke, the hairs came out.  It worked great before that.
 Usually, I'll get the palette knife out to work some of the edges. For this painting, I chose not to. I did use a pallet knife for one thing.....the petal sitting beside the vase.

 

Sunflowers in Vase

I'm starting to experiment with sight size.  Instead of making everything life size, I'm painting things the size I see them from a distance (much like my landscapes).  This way I can fit much more on a small canvas.
Available Here.