Year end, new work
After too much fussing and tweaking, I have finally reached a resolution on this larger still life painting that I started before Christmas. It was an organic-ish composition whose foundation item was the brown bag. On the day that I…
Fun with Little Sprats
A very quick sketch of some sprats (as they thawed after several months in the freezer). I wanted to work quickly and expressively, with larger brushes and simple mark-making that is also descriptive. I also painted this grouping, but I…
Hydrangea and Chinese Vase
With a few bits and pieces on the go, here’s a little one shot Alla Prima painting. I don’t really like it all that much overall, but there are a few areas here and there, such as the shadow under…
Lessons in Perseverance
I haven’t posted very much lately because I’ve been experimenting with a few larger paintings and taking a little more time over them. At least three didn’t really go anywhere and I scraped them down ready to start afresh. This…
An Afterthought of Limes
This is a quick sketch that wasn’t intended at all for today’s painting exercise. I wanted to start work on a larger piece, and began the day by arranging and re-arranging still life objects again and again. Nothing made me…
Sunflowers
I seem to have a bit of thing for flower painting at the moment. These were starting to wilt a little, so I laid them out in the sun for a while before painting them, and will now see how…
Freesias in a tall vase
A very painterly approach to capturing these freesias and the soft lighting that the day provided, and I wanted to keep a fresh and spontaneous feeling to the work. I couldn’t see a lot of detail or definition within the…
Stocks in the Silver Coffee Pot
It’s been a while since my last post as I was unfortunately struck down by a summer bug which has taken a few weeks to get over. I’ve slowly been getting back to normal and started back at the easel…
Lavender in the old glass bottle
Here is a very quick painting where I again considered a white backdrop and the different atmosphere that this provides. I wanted to make a feature of the shadow as a part of the composition, while keeping things generally quite…
Pewter and Satsuma
This alla prima painting is quite broad in terms of its brushstrokes, with occasional impasto work on the surface. The pewter goblet is such a definite shape, I decided to place it against a pale backdrop with a white tablecloth…
