© 2015 R.L. Delight, Tipping Point, 9"x12", oil on canvas
It has been stormy this week as front after front has moved through. Thankfully
just wind and a lot of rain. I feel for all my East coast friends and
family being buried in snow, so, no complaints here! However, it has
been stormy enough to keep me in the studio instead of out on the beach.
I am actually happy for the studio time. It gives me a chance to work a
few things out. I decided to work on still life on stormy days. While I
admire still life paintings with flowers and teacups, toys, and other
household objects, I realized that I prefer to paint natural objects
found on the beach, for now. I have a collection of interesting pieces
of driftwood, rocks, and the occasional feather. I will be using these
in a series of still lifes.
I have
decided to make these still lifes fill in a few purposes. First, I
wanted them to have a slight environmental narrative. I also wanted to
use the painting process to work on my technique. Believe me, it needs
practicing on every level! This still life is just about finished, in
spite of the signature. When I took it into the daylight, I didn't like
the yellow color in the lightest areas of the rocks. I am putting this
aside to dry and then I will go back, take another look, and if need be
alter the color in spots. When I got it to where I am mostly happy with
it, I will put it up for sale. I am also changing the light over my
easel to balance the color out a bit better.
Tipping
Point was painted alla prima-ish. I painted it over 3 days (including
set up time). I decided the next still life will also be alla prima but
this time I am going to use my notes from the workshop I took with
Kathleen Dunphy and follow the process she taught us. After exploring
and experimenting a bit, I want to home in on a painting process.
Kathleen's makes sense to me so I will start there.
As soon as I
took this off the easel, I cleaned my palette and brushes and then set
up the next still life. I like to play around with the set up and then
leave it overnight or longer if possible to think about and look at. If
the weather improves for tomorrow, I will be heading out to paint plein
air otherwise I will be starting in on the next still life.
Here are a couple of pictures from the painting sessions. I will do better on getting work-in-progress pictures on the next one.
© 2015 R.L. Delight, Tipping Point, first drawing
© 2015 R.L. Delight, Tipping Point, WIP
Stay warm and dry everyone!
-Renee
2 comments:
Very nice Rene, You seem to have made great strides on the still lives. Maybe it's just the color palette, or the subject matter, but this one is lovely. Great shadows and such on the stacked rocks....
Thank you Theresa! The key is controlling the values. I had to hear it 100 time before it sunk in. I understood in intellectually but the rest of me had to catch up to that understanding. Still working on the paint handling and all but had a few "ah, now I see" moments.
Post a Comment