Three D'Anjou Pears

Three D’Anjou Pears – 6" x 8” Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

I have been watching the Teaching Company’s lecture series “Dutch Masters” by William Kloss, and have been inspired to work more on depicting fabric. With Dutch paintings in mind, I set about to work on a composition with a grouping of items that was essentially stable and somewhat formal while also having some additional visual interest. The simple placement of the pears was played off by the dynamic qualities of the fabric folds.

Manderin Orange with Leaves

Mandarin Orange with Leaves – 6” x 8” Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

Working on this piece was a race against time. I had purchased a few mandarin oranges a week or so earlier and decided to paint another still life of this subject (the previous painting was posted earlier in December). In my home the humidity level is low, so this mandarin was starting to dry out, and the leaves were curling and becoming brittle. I knew if I wanted to capture the bright green and orange colors in front of me, there was no delaying…

Three Pumpkins Still Life

Three Pumpkins – 8” x 10” Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

I worked on this painting on and off for over 6 weeks. It was a fun and challenging piece, to capture the different colors, values, and textures of the three very different types of pumpkins. After I had worked on this painting for two sessions, I analyzed the composition and decided to manipulate the hierarchy of importance in the painting. I choose to make the large salmon colored pumpkin the prominent item even though it was the farthest back. I did this by minimizing the detail on the front bumpy pumpkin and enhancing the contrast between the three pumpkins, making the greatest value contrasts to be with the salmon pumpkin.

Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti Squash – 8” x 10” Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

I enjoy this painting for its different bright and warm colors. The warmth of the yellow squash, the orange table cloth, and the red pillow all harmonize in an analogous manner, that is red, orange, yellow are contiguous on the color wheel and have in common one of the primary colors (in this case, the color red). Analogous harmonies can become monotonous, however in this composition, the cool green drape in the background provides just enough variation and diversity in color temperature to keep the painting interesting.

I love the play of analogous color schemes and how they can be brought to life with introductions of complementary accents.

Artists I find Inspiration From:

In recognition of inspiration, I have recently added links to artists I admire and enjoy viewing their work. The links are in the lower right margin of this blog. I would like to encourage you to click on a few of them and see the wonderful and very individual talent that is out there in the world...

Just to clarify, these links are not the only ones I like the most. I will add more links as time goes by. This is just my first crack at adding links to other websites from my blog.

Liz

Inspiration and the Spirit of Art

For several weeks I have been thinking about inspiration and the spirit of art. I mull over these two ideas as I go about my daily activities and wonder how they influence my life.

Firstly, I believe these ideas are symbiotic, and without the other, both my drive to create art and the feelings and emotions I strive to capture will flounder and fade. To me, living well, enjoying my surroundings, and finding the fun in discovery are what drive my inspiration. It is these thoughts and feelings that I want to share with the world. For I enjoy and like life. So I guess the spirit of art is the contextual environment I live in. It is my day to day existence, and when I paint, draw, or design I am discovering a means to share these feelings, emotions, and experiences.

As I have been thinking about this for some time, I am sure as I progress on my journey of life and becoming a more accomplished artist, I will have more to say about how the Spirit of Art and Inspiration are so important to me and how to better define how these two ideas impact my life and my outlook.

Mandarin Orange

Mandarin Orange – 6” x 8” Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

Today I was shopping again in the Asian food market I typically go to, and they had a large selection of Mandarin Oranges… It was fun to purchase fruit that still has some of the stem.

Bio and Artist Statement

Beets from an Asian Market

Fresh Beets -- 9” x 12” Oil on Canvas SOLD

The other day I was in my favorite Asian food market when a saw this bunch of beets. They were so beautiful with the purple bulbs still covered in dirt and the electric green leaves with fuchsia stems. I was initially intimidated with attempting to paint them, as I really wanted to capture the extremes of the colors and textures. In the end, I am very pleased with the result and I look forward to finding something just as interesting the next time I shop at the Asian food market.

More Figure Sketches

Here are a few more figure sketches I completed over the weekend. I especially love the one of the standing female. This was a 30 minute sketch that just came together, drawing the initial form and then the painting of light and shade.

I hope you enjoy them!

This was a 30 minute pose on a 16" x 20" Canvas

This was a 20 minute pose on a 8" x 10" canvas panel

Fast Figure Painting

This past weekend I attended a two day intensive figure painting workshop. What made it so very stimulating was that the longest pose was for 30 minutes! It was great fun, really getting into the paint and only focusing on the moment and what my senses could perceive. Here are a couple of the paint sketches I completed.

This was a 10 minute pose, and is completed on an 8 x 10 inch canvas panel:

This was a 15 minute pose, and is completed on an 8 x 10 inch canvas panel:

Here is a 30 minute pose, and this was completed on a 16 x 20 inch canvas:

Tomorrow, I will post a few more images to share with you.

Persimmons III

Persimmons III – 6” x 8” Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

Here is another persimmon still life. When I paint one still life, I tend to paint more because I want to continue to investigate and learn more about how to capture the item.