A painting a week. Week 57

“A red onion and an aubergine.”

Still experimenting with still life and discovered that I like more and more painting this genre.

I sometimes struggle finding the subject matter and this was the case this week. The inspiration came when I was shopping fresh things for cooking at the local supermarket. I found aubergines on the shelf, so I thought it would be a nice thing to paint, so I only bought one. Probably I will buy some more to do a few more paintings and obviously to eat them afterwards. In Romanian cuisine we have an roasted aubergine salad, which is delicious, so everything to do with aubergines sorted.

I tried a few compositions and ended up with the aubergine with a red onion. I didn’t use a very strong light, so the shadows are not as strong, and positioning the light very high, I reduced the size of the cast shadow.

I, again, used a reduced palette, few browns, cobalt blue, 2 yellows, purple, amethyst and lake red. For first couple of layers I just used turpentine, then I introduced some de Mayerne medium. I tried to use thicker paint and used more varied brushstrokes for background and foreground. I did the painting in one day, painting alla prima, over few sessions.

So, here it is:

“A red onion and an aubergine.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”)

A painting a week. Week 56

“A plum and two clementines.”

A great week for me. I managed to get two extra days off at the end of my holiday and it made all the difference. A very good week for art, I did a nice life drawing study at the Sarum Studio in Salisbury, completed couple of paintings from previous weeks and some more things done.

For my weekly painting I have chosen yet another still life. Because is still winter and I think that citruses are perfect in winter I have chosen some again. Two clementines from the local supermarket, pared up with a plum. I Painted it alla prima, using some turpentine and some diluted de Mayerne medium. The palette was reduced, just Italian genuine Cassel, transparent brown oxide, violet dark, amethyst, cadmium yellow lemon,  cadmium yellow deep, cobalt blue and white.

I completed the painting over few hours, few sessions in one day.

I was trying to depict more of the light, leaving the darks and adding the middle tones and highlights. For the darks, I used the dark underdrawings and reinforced the transitions. I only painted the cast shadows.

So, here it is:

“A plum and two clementines.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week. Week 55

“Pear, coconut and apple.”

Another week has gone, and as the end of January approaches, the day is growing bigger and bigger. Is not very visible in the mornings, but the afternoons are definitely lighter. Of course, this makes me feel happier as I don’t like long dark winter nights. The weather is still bad, mostly rain and rain and rain again. But, on a positive note, this means more time for still life painting

This week, I decided to use the whole coconut left from last week and I added an apple and a pear for the composition. I am still using the sight size method, although I experimented a bit this week with some scaling up with another still life. Still using a relatively reduced palette, some browns (burnt umber, raw and burnt sienna, cadmium maroon and Italian genuine Cassel), some yellows (Indian yellow, cadmium Yellow medium and lemon yellow), cobalt blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red light and titanium white.

I painted alla prima, few sessions over few hours.

So, here it is:

“Pear, coconut and apple.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week. Week 54

 “Coconuts”

Another week and here we are, the week 54 of my project. Still winter, obviously, not as harsh as could be, but still winter. Still very humid and windy and, for me, uncomfortable to paint outdoors. Although I am waiting anxiously for better weather I have more time to concentrate on still life.

The subject chosen for this week is coconuts. I have bought two of them from the supermarket and initially intended to paint both whole. After trying many compositions and unable to decide which, I thought that I might crack one of them. Believe it or not, I have never cracked a coconut before in my entire life! I didn’t know what to do, firstly I tried with a very sharp serrated knife, but the attempt was unsuccessful. So, after watching some YouTube tutorials I did it the proper way, or, at list an easier one. Drilled the 3 holes with a screwdriver, poured the coconut water in a bowl and then cracked it with a hammer. And, now I know how to do it. Not to mention that the fresh coconut is delicious.

Back to the painting.

I painted it alla prima, over few sessions, done the same day. I used a reduced palette with some browns and yellows (Italian genuine Cassel, burnt umber, raw and burnt sienna, Indian yellow, cadmium yellow medium, transparent brown oxide, cadmium maroon), cobalt blue and white. I used some diluted de Mayerne medium and some turpentine.

So, here it is:

“Coconuts”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week. Week 53

“Moonshine and blue cheese.”

The first year of my weekly painting project has gone and now is the first week of the new (second) year. I have done quite well, especially from the second part of last year, experimenting and working a lot with still life. A genre that before I was only painting rarely and mostly from photos and now I am doing on weekly basis and only from life with my own set ups. Last week, while doing Vincent’s portrait (Vincent is the black fluffy cat) I learnt that dark colours can dry a bit dull, so I enhanced it by applying some Liquin original on top of the cat. This is why I decided to work more with Liquin, so I decided to use it this week.

I did a simple composition with a block of blue cheese, my favourite cheese and a glass of moonshine with a rich dark cognac colour.

I used Liquin as medium, more with the dark background and less with the objects. I painted the background in layers, but the cheese and the glass I painted alla prima.

So, here it is, my first painting of 2018, and first painting of the second year in the weekly painting project:

“Moonshine and blue cheese.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week.Week 52

“Four nectarines.”

Week 52. The end of a fabulous year and hopefully the beginning of a greater one.

I found little time this week for painting, but I still wanted to complete my weekly painting. When you have a target, you have to do it no matter what.

My chosen genre for this final week of the year was still life and I quickly set up an arrangement with some fruits, four nectarines, on this occasion. Innitially they were three, but I thought the composition wasn’t strong enough, so they become four.

I painted alla prima over few hours, using some medium (De Mayerne) diluted with white spirit. Just as an experiment, as I haven’t used recently.

So, here it is:

My last painting of 2017.

“Four nectarines.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm. (10” X 12”).

Happy New Year!!!

A painting a week. Week 51

“A pomegranate and two persimmons.”

I can’t believe, Christmas is almost here. It was last year, that I decided to start this “A painting a week” project.

And because of this project I started doing still life paintings, a lot of them, and I now enjoy this genre.

For this week, after a busy spell at work, I wanted to do something easy and somehow festive. And for me fruits are festive.

I did a set up with a giant pomegranate and couple of persimmons.

I painted alla prima using a reduced palette, as I recently started doing. A mixture of paints from Old Holland and Blue Ridge.

And Vincent didn’t want to become part of this painting; recently he started sleeping on my set up stand alongside the still life.

So, here it is:

“A pomegranate and two persimmons.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week. Week 50

“A cup of coffee with a robin, at Cranborne Garden Centre”

A dark, gloomy, late November afternoon. I was drinking a cup of coffee (with milk), when suddenly, a beautiful little bird came to keep me company. A friendly little robin. They are rather small, with a red-orange chest and are sedentary birds. From the 19th century, are highly associated with Christmas and are present on many cards.

Cranborne is a village in East Doset with a population of less than 800. In the past, Cranborne was a market town, with a much larger population. There was a hunting lodge, built by King Henry VIII and hosted many kings for hunting, starting with King John.

The garden centre is set in the former walled kitchen garden of Cranborne manor. The house is not open to the public, but some of the garden can be visited on regular bases. The garden centre, has a nice kitchen and they organise weddings and receptions as well. Lovely place, we like going there from time to time, for a little walk and a cup of coffee.

I did the painting after a photo taken by me, using alla prima techniques. I haven’t painted from a photo in a long time, so I quite enjoyed the experience.

So, here it is:

“A cup of coffee with a robin, at Cranborne Garden Centre.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week. Week 49

“Two clementines and a plum.”

Clementines, sweet, little fruits, lovely scented, easy to peal and seedless. What more can you ask from an orange? And this is why they are my favourite from the oranges family.

This week I was looking for a simple composition, with fruits. So I went for what I found in my larder, couple of clementines and a plum. A solitary plum. I have chosen the plum to pair with the clementines, because I thought it would be a better colour composition and the size is similar, just a bit smaller. For me, plum is similar to autumn, and clementines with winter, I don’t know why but I think that clementines and oranges smell like Christmas. Anyway, this is a different story.

For the painting I used a linen canvas, from “belle arti” as per usual. Oil primed. I painted alla prima, over few hours, using the sight size technique and a fairly limited palette.

So this is it:

“Two clementines and a plum.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”)

A painting a week. Week 48

“Poinsettia, the Christmas flower.”

A very busy week at work. And at art. I managed to finish another watercolour (watercolour is my newest experiment – I think that by learning watercolour will improve my painting skill in oils and I will have a new medium to express my artistic feelings). I also reworked a still life I did last week with orange fruits on an orange background. And after fulfilling all my other obligations, I was left with only half of Sunday for my weekly painting. Days are very short now, hence I chose to do a still life (again) – probably, throughout the winter will be my favourite subject mater.

During the week, doing some shopping at the supermarket, we ended up buying this beautiful poinsettia flower in a pot. Perfect subject for a still life. Poinsettia is the unofficial Christmas flower and alongside Christmas cactus, mistletoe, green ivy, holly and few others is used as decoration for the festive period. It originates in Mexico and the Aztecs were using it to treat fever and for obtaining red dye. The Aztec name of the plant was “Cuetlaxochitl”; the western name comes from Joel Roberts Poinsett who brought the flower outside Mexico.

I did the painting alla prima in a 3 hours session.

I used some de Mayerne medium in the final layer. I used a palette with 2 blues (cerulean and cobalt), 3 yellows (cadmium light and medium and yellow lemon), 3 reds (alizarin crimson, lake red light and another light red), warm white, transparent brown oxide and van dyke brown.

So, here it is:

“Poinsettia, the Christmas flower.”

Oil on linen.

30 X 40cm (12” X 16”)