ONE LEFT OUT

One more painting ready to go to La Posada de Santa Fe...  I'm hoping to do one more before I head out to New Mexico to deliver new work.

This has been a fun series of paintings!  I actually did a version of this same idea for the demo I did earlier this week at the Trinity Art League in San Antonio. I did the demo as a 20 x 16 but I wiped it off at the end because the sunflowers died. :(

I've been putting birds in the last three and in the next one I'm thinking a real bird might be fun.  I'll just have to think about it a bit. All of the first four have flowers in them so I'll probably do some more flowers...  here I am, thinking out loud!

MANDARINS & BLUE and OLD OAK & REDBUD

 

OLD OAK & REDBUD

20 x 24 inches
Oil on Cradled Wood Panel

MANDARINS & BLUE

20 x 24 inches

Oil on Cradled Wood Panel

Both of these paintings will be available next week through 

La Posada de Santa Fe 

Santa Fe, New Mexico

COMPANIONS...

I finally finished the companion painting to OLD OAK & REDBUD and the two paintings are ready to be delivered to La Posada de Santa Fe.  I'm looking forward to being able to hand deliver them and enjoy a short road trip to Santa Fe and a stay at this beautiful hotel! What a treat!

It's always nice to get through a project like this one and it's fun to get started on the next painting. I have a good one planned and I'll try to post some progress paintings as I work through it.

OLD OAK WITH FRUIT & REDBUD

I think it's finished!

I'll leave it overnight and if I still think it's finished, I'll sign it.
Redbuds went more easily than I thought they would. Flowers are usually very tricky but with some good reference material, it wasn't too bad.  This is a photo of it while still on the easel. I need to get a better photo under controlled conditions but this will have to do for now.

OLD OAK WITH FRUIT AND REDBUD   20x 24 inches   Oil on Cradled Wood Panel

OLD OAK WITH FRUIT & REDBUD -- WIP

DAY SIX

It's almost finished!  I spent all day today working on the fruit and the brass and I'm looking forward to finishing this one. It held all kinds of challenges but it's pretty much finished except for the redbud flowers and a little glazing on the brass.  

Detail of fruit

I'm now at the stage of a painting where part of my focus is looking at it critically and part of me is thinking about the next setup. I want to use the other side of the antique oak secretary and making a complementary composition to this painting. I'm wishing that we had dogwood trees around here. I think that would look great next to the redbuds.

OLD OAK WITH FRUIT AND REDBUD

DAY FIVE

Today I added the branch for the Redbud and next will be the flowers.  I've also worked on the baby pineapple leaves and the brass bowl. The brass bowl is a challenge as I said before. The color first looks orange, then brown & with another look it becomes green!

I took it as far as I could today.  Hopefully the parts I worked on today will have dried enough to work on them some more. Unfortunately, I worked a little backward today and it was hard not to smudge the areas that I just painted. My bad! Maybe I will remember that when I work on it next time.

OLD OAK WITH FRUIT & REDBUD _ WIP

DAY FOUR

Another day of work on this painting and I've filled in the front of the secretary. I can see that I need to tone it down just a little but it's a pretty good representation of the carving.  It's just a bit too bright.

I also worked on the tall vase and I think it's probably pretty close to finished. Next I think I'll work on the brass dish holding the fruit. I find brass to be a very difficult metal to read...one minute it looks orange & the next it looks green! I'm making some progress on it at any rate.

DETAIL of vase

I'm afraid I'll have to buy some more grapes to use as models because these are starting to look more like raisins and the leaves on the pineapple are getting a little brown now.  I am glad that I took photos!

It's probably time to put in the redbud branch too. It's the key factor in tying the composition together.

OLD OAK WITH FRUIT & REDBUD- WIP

This is the photographic setup for my new 20 x 24 inch still life. I started the painting without the redbud but I decided it would be a nice touch to connect the two areas of the painting.

That's why the redbud isn't in the sketch. I haven't added it to the painting yet but I will put it in soon. I thought it would be easier to add it in at the end so I can work the other areas without it's interference. 

That's why the redbud isn't in the sketch. I haven't added it to the painting yet but I will put it in soon. I thought it would be easier to add it in at the end so I can work the other areas without it's interference. 

Another day... another adjustment

After the first real day of painting I decided to check the effect of the lighting changes I made after the previous painting (WAITING .... the small palomino horse painting) and I'm still not satisfied with the results so I'll move the halogens back even further and see if that helps.

 

I've decided to readjust the studio lighting and I'm hoping that it will fix the "dull" look of some of my recent paintins. I was using some low wattage halogens because the color rendition is supposed to be better than fluorescents or incandescent bulbs but my older paintings painted under balanced fluorescent bulbs (not cfl's) looked better under most lighting conditions so I'm back to experimenting with them. 

So this is the result of today's work on the painting. I had to adjust the painting of the pitcher and I think the results are better with the new lighting even when I move the panel into other lighting conditions. I sure hope this works to reduce the frustration of trying to get values and chroma levels under control.

So today, my biggest progress was made on the oak secretary and lightening the white pitcher overall. I think the "lighting issues" are somewhat under control now!