Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Evening Rain


This was long before the San Antonio hail storm that happened at 10:00pm.  I was out painting around 5:30pm and got back home at 7:00pm.  I was originally going to wait for sunset but I figured the storm clouds would cover it up. We had a windshield break on our car and some damage to the car exterior, but luckily that was the worst of it.
SOLD.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Yellow Onions


The first time I painted from life, I chose onions.  Now I've been painting onions off and on for 10 years.  They remain one of my favorite subjects.  I think you can tell by this painting how much I enjoy painting them.  I was going to crop this to a 6"x6" but decided to keep it the original size of 7"x7".

Sunflower in Warm Light


This was painted with a direct warm light on the sunflower.  I really wanted to focus on the light and how beautiful this sunflower was.
SOLD

Friday, April 8, 2016

Roses and Gold


I like to play around with different lighting. This was a warm yellow/green light. I turned down the intensity because I wanted a more harmonious color scheme. These roses are probably the same ones from the last painting.  I bought four roses on Tuesday and I've used them for two small paintings.
SOLD

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Rose Study - Cool light

 

  On Tuesdays it's dollar roses at Central Market.  I've made that an informal tradition for a couple of years now (I don't go every Tuesday but I think about it).  I generally prefer the bigger roses.  The ones they sell in a bunch are the smaller buds.
   I didn't start painting these roses until today. I woke up at 7am and made coffee.  The cat actually wakes me up by walking over me and jumping off the bed, making a loud "thud". Then once I'm up she wants her treats and if it's cold I have to hold her.
  Once I got in my studio, I looked at the setup and chose an aqua green light.  Two hours later I wiped the painting away because I could not recreate that color on my pallet.  Sure I should have seen that in the beginning but I thought I could get away with it if the values were correct. So, what I was painting was not exactly what I was seeing.  I then switched to a soft cool white light. After that the painting went a lot easier.

  Mine are in there somewhere.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Lighted Tea Cup


As I scrutinized this tea cup before I started, I asked myself "what is it about this tea cup I want my viewer to see?" The challenge is to find beauty in a subject and transfer that to your canvas. I thought some more and played with different lighting. This time I chose a soft green light.
SOLD

Friday, April 1, 2016

Cincinnati Radishes

 

If I'm going to paint vegetables or fruit (rarely together), I'll probably visit Central Market in Alamo Heights.  They keep their produce in a more fresh from the farm state.  As I walked around, a purple colored bunch of radishes caught my eye.  I said to myself "that might make a great addition to a still life".  Hours later, in my studio, I placed them next to the copper bowl and it looked a bit contrived.  Instead, I picked them up and let them fall naturally.  Then I placed the bowl where I wanted it.  
SOLD!

This was taken as I was blocking in the darks and drawing out the composition.

  
Now I've got everything blocked in.  I did my first hard edge on the bottom of the lower middle raddish. 

I took this picture so I'd remember the exact name of the vegetable I bought.