A painting a week. Week 107

“Still life with clock.”

Working on a still life, always gives the opportunity for experimenting and being playful. Firstly, with the composition itself. I was struggling, trying to find the “perfect” subject, but, in fact there is no such thing. Is all about composition and light and shadows. What is composition? Well, I think is the organization of the elements, including the objects, light and shadows. It can usually be broken into abstract shapes. So, more things and bigger variety leads to more complex and interesting compositions. And the light is equally or more important. Some say that a good painting needs at least 85 % dark (black), but this is debatable. What is important is to paint the effect of light on the composition. Anyway, I could probably talk long time about this things, without getting anywhere. So, back to the painting. I didn’t know what to paint and I was walking around Shaftesbury, when I found this lovely mechanical clock in a charity shop. We bought it and it become my subject for a painting. Placed on a CD case, and paired with a little vase with pussy willows and couple chocolates, one of which, soon become a wrapper ... and this was the composition solved.

I used my usual palette, with some yellow ochre, transparent brown oxide and Italian Cassel added. For the medium I wanted to experiment, so I used the DE Mayerne, diluted 50% with turps. I like the quality and the consistency of this medium, but is more difficult to work with, mainly because if you don’t work with thick paint, the brush strokes are not as visible. I had to lay more paint on top of first layers in order to have visible brush strokes. And, I think it dries to shiny. Shinier than with liquin anyway. I worked in few evening sessions over the week.

Here it is:

“Still life with clock.”

Oil on linen.

10” X 12” (24 X 30cm).

A painting a week. Week 106

“Still life with plums and tangerine.”

It may look like it’s becoming a habit, me painting fruits, or flowers, but, in fact it isn’t. It just happened. One day I will surprise the audience with something different. One day ...

But  for now, another painting with fruits would do. It is still the season for indoor painting and still the fruits or flowers are the most convenient subjects. Fruits are better, because they last long and they don’t move, unlike flowers.

I did the setup using a glass bowl and a tangerine segment. I used a black backdrop and a dark grey tea towel.

For paints, I used my usual palette, also used liquin as a medium and, of course, some turps.

I painted alla prima, but worked in layers, using liquin for the background and for the plums, being very dark; without medium, dark colours tend to dry very dull.

So, here it is:

“Still life with plums and tangerine.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week. Week 105

“Plums, lemons and a bowl.”

I wanted to start the new year with, yet another still life. And this is not difficult in this weather. Dump and cold. And frosty in the mornings. Anyway, enough with moaning about the lovely weather. So, I wanted to do a still life. It was rather difficult to choose the subject matter, because I did lots of still life paintings recently and is hard not to repeat myself. I didn’t want flowers, because they don’t tend to last long, especially not in the winter, but something organic still, do next best option was obvious: fruits.

I did a simple composition of two lemons and two plums, with the red bowl I have used before. I used a dimmed light to illuminate  the set up and low light in the room (also known as studio). For the colours, I used my usual palette and for medium, some turps and some de Mayerne medium, diluted with turps.

I Painted alla prima, over few sessions. First couple of layers, I have applied with a bristle brush, and finished it working with sable or other soft artificial brushes. I found that the life span of a sable brush is very short when painting in oil, but I like the effect, better than artificial ones.

So, here it is, my first painting of 2019:

“Plums, lemons and a bowl.”

Oil on linen.

24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).

A painting a week. Week 104

“A vase with freesias on a Persian table cloth.”

As the year comes to an end, with only few days remaining I wanted to do something more complex than before. One of my favourite subjects in still life was, recently flowers. And, even though is winter, you can still find flowers at the local supermarket. So, I bought a nice bunch of yellow freesias, with shades varying from deep yellow to pale yellow, nearly white. I did the set up using a vase I used couple of times before. It is hand made by a Dorset potter and we bought it from an exhibition at “Statues by the Lakes”, for local artists, when we visited the place. Lovely little vase. As a back drop I used a Persian table cloth, which added complexity to the composition.

I used my usual palette, adding cadmium yellow deep, and lapis lazuli. For medium I used turps, as I always do, for thinning the paints and cleaning the brushes and I also used liquin, especially with dark colours, because it helps keeping them brighter and deeper. Without medium, dark colours tend to dry duller and loose their intensity; I experimented before and I know that liquin is a good choice for nice darks.

I painted it all prima over few sessions. The longest it took me to do the background and the vase, and at the end I added the flowers with thick paint, then the shadows and highlights.

Another problem I encountered is related to the ambient artificial light. Because I am mostly painting after work and this time of the year, there is no daylight then, I find myself painting mostly in artificial light. And, because the light is too bright and warm, I find difficult to adjust the colour temperature. When I am under the working conditions, the colour temperature appears warmer than when I bring the painting into daylight. I will have to change the lights to a full spectrum light and less powerful, ideally around 40 to 60W. This way I hope that I would be able to work better with the temperatures.

So, this is my last painting of the year 2018 (a total of 86 paintings, mostly in oils – 6 watercolours and some drawings in charcoal):

“A vase with freesias on a Persian table cloth.”

Oil on linen.

30 X 40cm (12” X 16”).

A painting a week. Week 103

“A glass of moonshine.”

During the long, dark and cold winter nights you need something to warm up with. An elegant choice would be a glass of strong alcoholic beverage. I think that a good choice could be a nice moonshine. Like the one I have, aged in a wooden barrel, from which it got the lovely colour.

Anyway ... I was enjoying a glass and looking at the light hitting it and playing with it I thought it might make a nice painting. So, I have chosen it as a weekly painting. As I was doing the set up, I thought the glass was looking to lonely, so I added a cork stopper from a bottle of wine. I set up the light and I had to adjust it few times before I was happy with it.

I painted it using my usual palette, to which I added cadmium yellow deep and yellow ochre. I painted it wet on wet, mainly, but I did the initial drawing and colour blocking couple of days before I actually had time to work on it, do the first layer was pretty much dry. I used the sight size method to do the drawing. I used some liquin, as a medium, for the darkest part of the painting, otherwise it becomes to dull.

So, here it is:

“A glass of moonshine.”

Oil on linen.

18 X 24cm (7” X 10”)

A painting a week. Week 102

“Still life with persimmons.”

Last week I painted my first self portrait, which also was my first painted portrait, coming after two charcoal portraits and some practice with cast painting and drawing, including the faceted had.

But, after the first selfie, I decided it was time for another still life. I haven’t done many recently, especially not with fruits. So I have chosen to do some. Went to do some shopping and bought a selection of fruits. After spending few hours playing with them, backdrops, composition, I finally did an arrangement with two persimmons in a red bowl.

I painted it using the sight size method, as it comes naturally for me after so much practice. It feels like second nature and I found that it is more difficult for me, now, to try any other methods of scaling. I should probably have to try more other methods, in the future, but for the moment I feel very confident about using sight size.

I Used my usual palette, adding kings blue light and cadmium yellow deep. I didn’t use any medium, just turps to thin the paints and clean the brushes. For the shadows, I used ultramarine blue on the backdrop and s mixture of Italian Cassel, transparent brown oxide and some ultramarine blue on the table cloth.

I worked alla prima (wet on wet), over few sessions.

So, here it is:

“Still life with persimmons.”

Oil on linen.

18x24cm (7” X 10”).

A painting a week. Week 101

“Selfie with blue t-shirt.”

A hundred weeks gone from my weekly project and still going strong. For number 101, the first of the next hundred I wanted to do something special. And, what could be more special than a selfie? I am studying life drawing and painting at Sarum Studio in Salisbury for nearly three years now. Portraits I am only just starting. I did a few drawing or paintings of casts, including a skull, but only attempted portraits twice, both in charcoal. So, I decided to do more. And, obviously the best model I can find is me. Always there when I paint. So, this is the first one and I intend to do many more. I normally work using sight size method, so I decided to give it a go on a self portrait. I have set up the big easel with a large mirror and, next to it another easel for the canvas. As I started painting I was surprised to see that, even if I painted sight size, the actual size of my head on the canvas was quite small hence I changed the canvas with a smaller one. And, after a discussion with my tutor at the Sarum Studio, I have learnt that in order to paint a life size portrait using sight size method, there are two options. Because using the mirror as I was using it, the size is about a half of the real size on all dimensions (tiny head). So, the options for bigger portraits are, either to set up the canvas in front of the mirror, half way towards the standing point, or set the canvas alongside you with the mirror in front and work with the image of the head which will be the same size as on the canvas. But, that is enough theory for now, I have chosen to do my first selfie using my first setup, with canvas alongside the mirror and do a relatively small portrait.

I have used a reduced palette, with Italian Cassel, burnt sienna, burnt umber, yellow ochre, kings blue light, ultramarine blue and white. I have used some De Mayerne medium, diluted double strength with turps and, some turps to thin the paint.

I painted it alla prima, over three sessions and I am quite pleased with the result, especially for a first painted portrait and a first selfie.

So, here it is:

“Selfie with blue t-shirt.”

Oil on linen.

10” X 12” (24 X 30cm).

A painting a week. Week 100

“Freesias in a vase.”

One hundred weeks into my weekly painting project . It is almost unbelievable. And it’s gone by really quick. But still going strong. I believe that forcing myself to complete at least one painting a week, contributed and still contributes to my development as artist. Amongst other things, is experimenting, trying new things, working on composition and not in the last place, practice. And I think practice is very important. Unfortunately, the weather is still awful, rainy, windy, cloudy, dump, but not cold. Anyway, not very good for painting outdoors and on top of that, the days are really short now. The good news is there is plenty to do on still life painting. And even if it’s winter, we can still find flowers. Hence, for my weekly painting I have chosen to do some freesias. And for the setup I used the same little vase from last week.

I used my (now usual) palette and added some cadmium green deep, burnt sienna and lapis lazuli.

I didn’t use any medium, just turps.

I painted it over few days, alla prima (wet on wet), starting with blocking the main shapes and values. At the end I did the suggestion of the pattern on the backdrop (I used a tea towel with a pattern of white carrots, parsnips and turnips probably), the shadow and added the highlights.

So, here it is:

“Freesias in a vase.”

Oil on linen.

30 X 40cm (12” X 16”).

A painting a week. Week 99

“The last roses from my garden.”

The winter is coming. That’s for sure. The days are getting shorter, the weather is dump and cold and windy and grey ...

But also, means more still life painting, which is not a bad thing.

And because I discovered in my garden a few roses still in flower, I picked the last of them and did a floral setup. I used a vase we bought from a Dorset artist exhibiting a while ago at “Sculpture by the Lakes”  near Dorchester named David Burns. He is based in Dorset and also teaches pottery classes and workshops.

Anyway, back to the painting ... The roses were dying when I picked them and I changed a bit the setup, after starting the painting, by adding the central rose and the buds. Although the setup itself was changing constantly, I did the painting over few days; no roses left by the time I finished, so I worked using a series of photos taken and a combination of memory and imagination. It was a good learning and involved some experimentation. For the shadow I used lapis, darkened with some transparent brown oxide. I didn’t use any medium, just turps and the canvas wasn’t tinted before painting.

So, here it is:

“The last roses from my garden.”

Oil on linen.

12” X 16” (30 X 40cm).

A painting a week. Week 98

“A Christmas rose.”

Back to still life. The weather started to have a more wintery feel. It is still good enough for plein air, but if becomes more of a challenge to paint outdoors, with drizzle every day, cold winds and cooler temperature. Considering all this and the fact that I didn’t do many still life paintings recently I decided to start doing them again. And, because Christmas is coming, I wanted to paint something more Christmassy. Hence, we bought this gorgeous hellebores, also known as Christmas rose. It is a poisonous flower, but it doesn’t belong to rose family, although the flower resembles a rose and despite the common name. It flowers throughout the winter, till early spring. The flowers are mostly white but can vary to various pinks.

I used a canvas tinted with pink and I painted with a different palette than my usual one. I used kings blue light, lapis as blues, Italian Cassel earth, unbleached titanium, jasper, titanium white, cadmium yellow light, yellow lemon and transparent brown oxide.

I worked alla prima, over few sessions in the evenings, throughout the week. I didn’t use any medium, just turps. The flower kept changing continuously, but I stayed with the original composition.

So, here it is:

“A Christmas rose.”

Oil on linen.

30 X 40cm (12” X 16”).