Buy my paintings on Etsy

Help fund my oil painting addiction! You can now buy my paintings on etsy. Here's a still life of a pear and an apple.

Red Chilli Pepper with Yellow and Red Tomatoes - Day 3

Third and final day's painting...

Red Hot Chilli Peppers with Tomatoes - Day Two

Managed to steal another hour painting today - here are the result's....

Red Chilli Pepper with Yellow and Red Tomatoes - Day 1

I feel like I haven't painted for ages! Its' so nice to forget about everything for half and hour and just focus on painting. I went for an intentionally off-centre composition.

Orange Day Two

Here's the result of the second evening's painting. I didn't have long, so just added some texture and shading to the oranges, as well as adjusting some of the colour relationships. It's certainly rough and ready, but that's not always a bad thing.

 

Orange Day One

I had another evening free to paint. Hopefully it's obvious, but it's a picture of an orange cut up into segments. I wanted to describe the contrasts between the pulpy flesh of the orange, it's skin and the metallic texture of the knife. Here's the pencil sketch to work out the general composition.

I spent the next hour painting. Here's where I got to at the end of the evening. It's still quite rough and sketchy, but it's a start.

Apple and Pear Day Two

14th May 2011

Lovely morning painting and making stuff with the kiddies. I even managed to finish off my still life painting.

 

Apple and Pear

I've opened up the box of oil paints again. Another fruit still life I'm afraid. This is the first pencil sketch...

and this one was taken a bit later after some colour had been added.

Two Pears - some variations on a theme

The first pear picture had been painted on the corner of a previous painting I hadn't liked much. I thought the picture of the two pears worked ok. However, the rest of the canvas was still showing the old painting. I decided to paint a series of variations on the pear theme in the remaining three quarters of the canvas. This is the first stage, still very basic, I'm just setting out the rough compositions and general colour relationships. I'll start putting in more detail and modelling over the next few days (hopefully).

Two Red Pears

A painting of two red pears. I loved the shape they made as they touch. Good negative space. The colours are more stylised than normal. I enjoyed the contrasts of the cold blue and warm reds.

The Apple And The Orange - Day 2

Second day on this painting. Got back from work at 10.30 so not much time to paint after I'd grabbed a bite to eat. Added a bit more detail to the apple and the orange and worked on the blue cushion. It's all very saturated and colourful. It may be a little crude but at least it's not muddy.

The Apple and the Orange - day one

I'm back in the saddle again. Thought I'd pick things up with a colourful still life. I'm trying to build the picture up in blocks of colour. I definitely don't want it to get muddy!

Light Painting = Light Blogging.

I'll be taking a short break from blogging about painting, but have primed this canvas ready for the next effort.

Onion and Garlic Still Life - Day Three

Third, and final, day of this still life. What started as a bit of a chore has ended up being an enjoyable couple of evenings painting. Even wiping some oil paint on my shirt sleeve hasn't spoilt it!

Onion and Garlic Still Life - Day Two

I enjoyed this evening's painting. Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying it's any good, just that I was having fun and learning stuff. Which is the reason I started painting anyway. One of the things I'm just starting to understand is the difference between painting with a dry or a wet brush and how different the brush strokes are depending on which you use. It's probably in that ladybird book of oil painting somewhere, but for me it was a real discovery.

Onion and Garlic still life

This still life has been a struggle to get started. It's all very loose and sketchy. Lots of false starts, but now, hopefully I've got something that I can build on...I stress the word 'hopefully'!

A Quick Study Of A Satsuma

I've just painted a very quick, and very small, study of a satsuma. Here it is:

portrait - final day

After a couple of days break, I came back to this odd made up portrait. The fella's got moodier as the painting has progressed; almost as if he's got more and more irritable with the painter.

Portrait Day Two

Day two of this made up portrait. Not sure why he looks such a grumpy sod.

fictitional portrait - day 1

Trying my hand at a portrait. This isn't of a real person. It was loosely inspired by an old master picture I found in an art book. I'm still looking for exercises to test and improve my painting. The hope is that in a year's time I'll look back and say wow haven't I improved.

still life - grapes

It's time to stop painting this one. I did find it quite a challenge to describe the translucent quality of the grapes. Don't think I quite nailed it, but I enjoyed the exercise.

still life - grapes day 2

I've painted the background. Next I want to go back and bring up the highlights on the grapes. I'm thinking it might help the composition to add a stray grape on the right.

Grapes

Grapes are an interesting subject for a still life, as they are translucent there are all kinds of interesting colours and reflections. I read somewhere that artists like Titian and Rembrant painted them as a way to test their mastery of chiaroscuro.

Apple Still Life - fin.

I think I'll leave it here. My daughter asked if I was going to paint something beside fruit - fair point - so the next one may be a portrait.

Still life apple continued.

The apple still life is slowly coming together. Starting to get a sense of light and warmth. I like the palette creeping into shot there. I'd happily go to an exhibition which only showed the paint splattered palettes of famous artists. I'm weird like that.

Still life in close up. Better to see all the wet paint and brush strokes. 

Apple still life

I'd forgotten just how much fun painting is. The smell of turps, paint in your finger nails, a gamut of colours pre-mixed on an easel. It's great. Anyway, here's where I am with the apple still-life.

Enjoying working within a restricted palette and trying out a variety of brush sizes.

Still life - apple

I took a step back and realised the composition made no sense. This picture of an apple should obviously be 'portrait' rather than 'landscape'. So this evening, I turned the canvas I'd been working on round the other way and started again. Unsurprisingly, the composition works much better now.

Still life: Apple

Another day, another still life. The reds, yellows and oranges are already working for me. There's a table lamp out of shot, which is providing the rim light on top of the apple. I'm digging the long shadow it's casting too.

Still Life: Passion Fruit, Yellow Knife, now with blue stripy tea-towel (4th evening)

I was unhappy with all of that negative space, so brought in a blue stripy tea-towel to give some visual interest.

Third evening - still life Passion Fruit, Yellow Knife

I'm very ambivalent about this painting. Too much space around the paint which I'm trying to disguise with expressionistic brushwork.

Still Life: Passion Fruit, Yellow Knife.

Third evening. The brush work has gone a little crazy on the right side of the picture. I've put more texture into the plate. Also added some highlights and shadows to the knife and passion fruit.

Still Life: Passion Fruit, Yellow Knife - Day One cont

I couldn't resist returning quickly to paint the plate and background.