January 25, 2017

Still Life with Rubik's Cube and Collie - updated and finished!

This is the finished painting!





I started working on a new still life in my studio, mixing it up just a bit by changing the teapot from the last one and adding a Rubik's cube that we had on our shelves.  As I put this together, though, I decided that I needed to add something on the floor.  Shoes didn't seem right.  A tote bag didn't add much.  So I put in my dog, Ollie, a tri-color smooth collie who is almost 10 years old.  I also ended up making the my round table a rectangle.

Still life symbolism is much studied, what with skulls and such in old paintings by masters.   The symbolism here, well, hmmmm.


January 13, 2017

Still Life in the Studio

During the 2nd Friday Art Walk, I  set up a little still life to paint.  I had about an hour to work on it, and got this far.

Next week I'll have a chance to work on the rug in the background that I'd just left untouched and get back into the colors and patterns in the foreground.

January 6, 2017

Livingston Montana Streetscape

Livingston, Montana looks like a movie set -- and it has been used as one for at least one recent movie ("Certain Women") and probably a lot more in the past.  I couldn't paint when I was there this past summer, so I took a bunch of reference photos and brought them into the studio to play with.

I've been trying to vary my palette, using colors that are brighter and more vibrant than the standard palette I'd been working from (I added prussian blue, phtalo green and cadmium lemon, took away alizarin, among other changes).  The image of the painting here is a bit darker than the end result in real life, but I made the choice to make the shadows on the brick buildings in cadmium red medium and keep other shadows in purples, blues and greens rather than going darker and duller.  I think the result works -- I've been playing with this for a while and I'll get a fresh look at it next week to see if other changes are needed.