Ready Set Go

When I thought about doing this I was excited about the bold primary colors, however, toward the end I thought that maybe the colors were too bold! I really looked to find reflected color in the fruit but there just wasn't as much as I hoped. Softening the edges helped and here it is.

All Chopped up and Nowhere to Go

Well, decided to try my hand at celery. Difficult to fit into a square painting seeing how it's very long, but I struck upon this composition that I think works very nicely. There wasn't a whole lot of contrast and it was difficult to stay loose while painting such detailed little pieces, but the end result wasn't too bad!

Quartered

These apples were fun to paint. A little on the high-key side of things, but I feel that I have enough contrast that it works. The title was inspired by the old English punishment of hanging, drawing and quartering people found guilty of high treason. The offender was hanged, but not killed mind you, then emasculated, - Ouch! and then disemboweled, then beheaded and then chopped into four pieces. Their remains were either put on display or cremated and then scattered to the four corners of the country. This is the fate that faced our forefathers who signed the Declaration of Independence and probably the same fate awaited one of my grandfathers if he were caught - Francis Marion (AKA Swamp Fox) who fought in the American Revolution.

On a happier less gruesome note - here's my palette that my brother gave me years ago. It's finally getting some good use. Perhaps I may need to get a new one soon - luckily he gave me 10 of them! I think he said he found them in his garage and they were slated for the trash bin. Thanks Dr. Blake!

Spent

Again the title for this one came easily as well. I'm not sure if I'm on a roll or I'm just getting better at naming these.This one came together and I like the way the leaf in the foreground is descriptive without being overly worked or becoming muddy.

Some days I feel this way just - spent. Like you've got nothing left to give and you just want to crawl into bed. But tomorrow is always a new day and you reset for the next day! The tulips are now officially "spent" I threw the rest of them away - if I paint this one again it will probably be named - dead. Painted from life - 6x6

Strawberry Preserved

Well, for once I didn't struggle with the title of my painting. At first I had a whole handful of strawberries and after messing around with the composition for far too long I grabbed this jar and put a strawberry inside. I like the reflections of red from the strawberry and it even works well with the underpainting which is a reddish color itself. The jar tuned out well without noodling it to death in my humble opinion. I think it looks convincing - the values are working and the colors, brushwork, and drawing all seem to have come together. I feel blessed.

Orange Guts

Here are some orange slices I painted. The inside or guts of the orange have been exposed revealing the actual "orange" or at least what I consider to be the actual orange -  the edible and sweet part of the orange.

I really like the way the peel happened - I think it reads well. And the orange slice in the middle I also really like the way it came across although it was actually more on the yellow side of things, but I decided to let more of the underpainting come through and paint it more orange than yellow-orange. The vibrant orange seems to glow a bit on the dark background so I emphasized that. I think I might explore this subject a little more and paint more of these.

Framed Art

Here's a picture of two paintings I sold to an artist friend of mine - Julie. She does some wonderful illustrations and writes books! She got the frames from framesbymail.com. Thanks for sharing the picture Julie.

Radishes - SOLD

Yes, that's right. You're eyes do not deceive you these are not flowers after painting tulips for over a week. But strange enough I'm using a very similar palette. These guys were pretty easy to set up and paint - the leaves were pretty hammered and they had been sitting in the fridge for a week waiting, but was able to get them to work and unlike the tulips these guys move very little - some of the leaves were wilting toward the end.

I like the play of complementary colors against a neutral background. The vibrant radishes really pop and I feel that the captured colors are true to life. The composition works and moves the eye quite nicely. Over-all I think it works.

Standing Tall Standing Alone

Well, this will probably be the last tulip I paint for awhile. I wanted to get a series of 4 on the same background and possibly frame them together. This one is simple yet it fills the space nicely and it came together very well. It was one of those nights where I felt blessed and things fell into place. The title is standing tall standing alone - not straight however, you might  have notice that it leans a little to the right (flower's right not yours). Might this be a conservative leaning flower - perhaps he'll vote for Ron Paul. Might not be leaning quite far enough to vote for a Libertarian.

Third time's the Charm

So here's one that I painted a few weeks ago when I didn't post much. It was a gift and hence a surprise and the not wanting to post a picture. There's a lot of symbolism in this one. It's a personal piece for someone very special in my life. 

On a technical note - this is the third version of this painting. The first two attempts just weren't good enough. I was painting from photos and for this one I went out and bought some flowers. I have new found respect for the florist who arranges flowers - I had a heck of a time trying to get my composition right and even then I probably could have played around wtih it for another hour. And after all of that I learn just how much flowers like to move! Not very cooperative models! They wouldn't even sign a model release form - something about no thumbs.

Tulip Dance

From the same series I've been working on this week, here are some more tulips. I wish I knew more about dance so I could say what this move is called, but to me it looks as if the one tulip is holding the other in a dipping move for lack of the proper term. I'm always open to ideas for the titles of these paintings.

Tulip Tango

Here's another tulip painting... I had a time trying to get these two in place. I ended up using some gravel in a glass jar to keep them where I wanted them. In the end they did whatever they wanted - ended up moving quite a bit. The foliage came together quite nicely. However, the flowers put up a fight - for some reason I couldn't get a decent dark red that would stay. Every time I started to work with it, it would just wipe off. - couldn't get it to stay! Frustrating, but in the end it worked.The 2 flowers looked as if they were dancing together so hence the title.