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Friday, February 3, 2012

Friday Inspriation: Still Life Quick Heart

Margaret Preston
The Fish Bowl
1910
{source}

Good Morning,

I thought I would share one of my favorite blogs

- Still Life Quick Heart -

Often I will visit this blog to get a little visual stimulation. I love how there is a wide variety of styles, subjects, and materials used. Another great aspect of this blog, is how it is organized, each image identifies the artist, title of piece with a link, and the timeframe of when it was created.

Several images are posted each day, so there is always something of interest to be found...
John Singer Sargent
Still Life with Daffodils
1885-95
{source}

Arturo Michelena
1894
{source}

Dennis Mogelgaard
2006
{source}

Ernest Quost
Flower Garden
1890

Clifford Harrison
Trompe l’oeil of Six Delft Plates
1976

Piet Mondrian
Chrysanthemum
1908–09
{source}






Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Tete-e-Tete Daffodils {a small floral painting}

Tete-e-Tete Daffodils

{7" x 5" (17.8 x 12.7 cm) – oil on linen panel}
Unframed painting: $100.00 starting bid + S&H

These diminuative daffodils are the early season flowers that keep giving. Brightening the home while also being wonderful still-life subjects.

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Naomi is continuing to grow and become the master of her fate. My blue ink pens are a favorite "toy" of hers and up until last week I could let her play with them because she had not yet learned how to remove the cap, well now she has... and I now know better then to leave her to her own means when occupied with one. I am just happy she did not get ahold of a sharpie!

{my little artist in the making...}

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pewter Mug with Grapes {a new small painting}

Still Life with Pewter Mug and Grapes

{7" x 5" (17.8 x 12.7 cm) – oil on linen panel}
Unframed painting: $100.00 starting bid + S&H

This painting and most other still-life paintings are completed from life using natural light. Over the past several years, I have shifted from using directional lighting on my setups to relying on natural light from north easterly windows in my studio.

Even though it is more of a challenge painting without a strong directional light, because they give strong shadows and contrast, I have found I enjoy the quality of color, the diffused soft edges, and nuanced changes between the light and shadow more.

This painting is an excellent example of why I prefer to paint from natural light. The soft blues and warm shadows in the pewter cup, and the variety of color found in the grapes. If I had used a directional light, a lot of the color shifts found in the grapes would have been blown out by a strong lights, thus changing to overall feeling and affect of the composition.

Thanks for stopping by and reading,

Liz

PS. do you see the mini-self portrait in the cup?

Monday, January 30, 2012

Amaryllis {Bountiful Observations no. 5}

Amaryllis

{8" x 8" (20.3 x 20.3 cm) – oil on canvas panel}
Framed painting: $300.00 starting bid + S&H

This beautiful bloom is from an amaryllis bulb I purchased in November, back in December it gave me two of the most spectacular blooms I have ever owned, so luscious that I just wanted to look at them and savour them untouched... After the blooms faded I resolved to replenish this bulb so it would bloom again next year, so I have been watering and tending to the bulb, when low and behold it gave me a third bloom!

This bloom was just as spectacular as the first two and I knew I needed to share it with you as a painting.

With this composition I aimed to share the excitement and joy I experienced every time I would look at this amaryllis, an unexpected, but very appreciated gift of life!


{14" x 14" (35.6 x 35.6 cm) with frame}

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This is a painting from my Bountiful Observations series, with 25% of the net proceeds of each sale being donated to the American Horticultural Society.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Friday Inspiration: Books about Landscape Painting {Free Online}

{the blustery sky today}

Today we are having an unusally warm day, I have the windows open in the house, and it is wonderful being able to air out the rooms and hear the birds chirping in the distance.

It is the end of January, but it feels like spring is just around the corner... which means I will be able to go out and paint en plein air soon! So with that in mind, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite landscape books that are available online.


Landscape Painting by Birge Harrison
{as a side-note, do not bother purchasing a re-printed copy of this book on Amazon because the scan is so poor. I did because I love to have a book infront of me that I can add highlights, dog-ears, and notes, but I was terribly dissappointed in the quality of the book and find the link above to be a much better quality, so I wasted paper and time with the purchase...}

The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colour By Sir Alfred East

Imagination in Landscape Painting By Philip Gilbert Hamerton

Brush and Pencil Notes in Landscape By Sir Alfred East

Light and Water: a study of reflexion and colour in river, lake and sea By Sir Montagu Montagu-Pollock

Landscape and Power By W. J. Thomas Mitchell

Have a wonderful weekend and see you Monday! 

Liz

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Three Cloves of Garlic {a new small painting}

Three Cloves of Garlic

{7" x 5" (17.8 x 12.7 cm) – oil on linen panel}
Unframed painting: $100.00 starting bid + S&H

Things have been a bit crazy lately, and I wanted to paint something simple, a limited palette, simple objects, and a straight forward composition. While life has been handing out zingers, I am striving to keep things simple and calm.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Pink Tulip {a new floral painting}

Pink Tulip

{7" x 5" (17.8 x 12.7 cm) – oil on linen panel}
Unframed painting: $100.00 starting bid + S&H

When I was painting this tulip it continued to grow and by the time I had finished, the tulip stem had easily grown 1/2 inch longer than when I first cut it. They say tulips keep growing after they are cut but I had never experienced such eager growth before...

Monday, January 23, 2012

Mums and Apples {Bountiful Observations no. 4}

Still Life with Mums and Apples

{8" x 8" (20.3 x 20.3 cm) – oil on canvas panel}
Framed painting: $300.00 starting bid + S&H

With this series, each new composition presents an opportunity to investigate new ways to convey the beauty and textural diversity found in flowers. In this painting I wanted to share the impression of a mass of flowers and stems surrounded by shiny apples, so instead of depicting the mums individually, I focused on the mass of yellow and how the flowers in shadow edged to violet.

Everything just seemed to fall into place, impressions captured and conveyed. It was a joy to paint.

{14" x 14" (35.6 x 35.6 cm) with frame}

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This is a painting from my Bountiful Observations series, with 25% of the net proceeds of each sale being donated to the American Horticultural Society.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Inspiration Friday: Some Memorable Quotes

This week when reading the current issue of Fine Art Connoisseur I was struck by this quote and thought you may also like to know about it. It says...

"Art should be independant of all clap-trap -- should stand alone, and appeal to the arstistic sense of eye and ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like." ~James Abbott McNeill Whistler

And here are a few more quotes I have come across this week.

"Since an artist appeals to the intelligence and the emotions, his work can only give real pleasure to those in whom it arouses a consciousness of beauty similar to his own perception." ~Rex Vicat Cole

"The way to understand painting is to go and look at it." ~Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better place than we found it, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.”   ~Walt Whitman

Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you on Monday.

Liz

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Jonquils & Pear {a new small painting}

Still Life with Jonquils and Pear

{7" x 5" (17.8 x 12.7 cm) – oil on linen panel}
Unframed painting: $100.00 starting bid + S&H

Spring is not here yet, however the stores have begun to sell small pots of tete-e-tete daffodils and I cannot resist them... and then the lovely flowers end up in the studio and in a painting.