“A beer bottle and a book.”
Week 46 of this year, and week 46 of my “A painting a week” project. So far, I am quite pleased with it. Because of this project, I started doing lots of still life paintings; before, I only did a few in almost 3 years. Lots of experiments with composition, light, shadows, colours, painting style, the list can go on and on forever. Endless possibilities.
For this week I have chosen another composition with a bottle of beer, my favourite beer, of course. They are lovely models, and easy to work with. They always stay still. And I always enjoy a good bottle of beer. Next to the bottle I placed an old book, which I have for many years. It belonged to my grandfather and it is an old English travellers guide of Great Britain by Karl Baedeker. The book is dated 1927, but I don’t know when and how came into possession of my granddad. Funny enough, the book is English, came to Romania and when I came here, I brought it back with me. Complete cycle.
For this painting I used a canvas toned with orange and I painted it alla prima, rather than my usual style of layering.
I painted it in few sessions, from an hour to couple of hours, but without allowing the paint to dry in between sessions. I haven’t used medium, just Turps to thin the paint. I still used a reduced palette, Burnt umber for the under drawing, burnt sienna, sap green lake extra (Old Holland), vine black, titanium white, golden yellow, alizarin crimson, cerulean blue and a touch of lapis lazuli and lemon yellow.
So, here it is:
“A beer bottle and a book.”
Oil on linen.
30 X 40 cm (12” X 16”)
