Oriental Art Still life

I have a beautifully carved rosewood brush rack that sits on my studio project table. My husband bought it for me while he was on a business trip many, many years ago. This sketch is incomplete and a little wonky. It only shows a portion of the rack and a few of my many brushes. I use the little teapot to add water to my inkstone when I grind my ink.

 

Daffodils

The daffodils have been blooming for over a week. I went out yesterday a picked a few after the rain. Sketched and watercolored them this morning over a morning cup of coffee in my large Arteza sketchbook with my waterbrushes. Everything is starting to bud and bloom now.

 

Fresh Lunch Veggies

 

We are still enjoying Blue Apron after about 4 years, maybe longer. It means 3 new recipes every week, so no need to plan every meal; the exact quantity of foods so not a lot of wasted food to throw out; and everything is fresh.

Radishes

This was my first go. I liked it but it was too dark in real life. The values look more balanced on the computer screen. The wooden planks work for me too but I decided to go back in and lighten it up.

I lighten it up everywhere except the red radishes. The  background, foreground and leaves are all lighter. Even so I may go in again the lighten the foreground and change the background to a lighter and bluer color. Or I may just move on. 

Apples Divided

Barbara Newton has posted a paint along with me. She is a pastelist but I decided to paint along with my acrylics since I no longer have any pastels. I it was fun. I generally have trouble working from someone else's reference photos but this was similar to some of my small set up. I like her idea of altering your reference photo to get closer to what you want your finished painting to look like. I have the other one she did sketched on my panel and hope to get to it later this week. Whether you are planning to paint along with her or not her blog is a treat to view. Mine was done over a fail painting on a flat 5x7 panel.

Odd Man Out

Here is the third and final painting in this series.

Peppers at Midnight

This one was a surprise. The grays I used for the colander just sat there. I liked the abstract shapes of the peppers and their shadows on the curved surface. I thought about using a red wash, vetoed that and tried yellow on on section which I quickly wiped off. Then turn to the tried and true blue for pushing things to the background. I was the best color choice but I probably should have not gone so dark. Hence the name. This one is an acrylic on a 5x7 inch panel.  It has a completely different look from anything I have done so far.

Peppers in a Jar

I started a small series of mini peppers paintings in acrylic. Don't expect any great masterpieces out of this group but more of a continued learning experience with acrylics. I was pleased with the peppers but the glass jar not so much. Glass has a steep learning curve that I am still climbing.

LSC workshop

In the colder months the Loudoun Sketch Club schedules Tuesday workshops once a month. This month was conducted by artist Liz Stevens on still life set ups. I was really excited to take this one because I have so much to learn in this area. I was not disappointed. She gave some good pointers and then did a demo in pastles. Some of us remained to paint. I didn't start a painting but took photos and did 4 small color sketches in my sketchbook. Two are below.

I haven't been posting much because  I have been preparing a sketchbook for a project I am working on in April.

Tangerines in Glass Bowl

This was a fun painting to do. Of course, almost every one that turns out the way I had hoped is fun. I guess tangerine orange is easier for me to mix than pear green. I know that I have been whining about the texture on this panel but it really worked for the subject. The texture made it easier to get the rough fruit skin.

tangerines start

Here is the start of my tangerine painting. On Monday I started a pear painting spent way too much time working on a failure before wiping it off. Did several set up with varying numbers of tangerines and decided to try this one. Already like it sooo much better than my pear start which I can't figure out. I have done lots of pears in watercolor and they alway come out ok if not great. Just could not get the greens right in that one. This is the 6" x 6" other Ampersand, The Artist Panel, value series wood panel with the primed canvas texture that I don't like as much as the smooth. But I did put a couple of additional layers of gray gesso and a warm golden layer of paint left on my pallet to fill in some of the "canvas" texture.