Poppies

Spread throughout last week ,these 4 sessions - I worked on some of my favorite flowers. I was mainly concerned with the values- showing the light coming through the petals & trying to bring the bud forward. 

Tea and oranges

This stilllife has taken a week- just because of limited studio time. The silver teapot wasn’t included initially- but I think it added some zing- which I wasn’t feeling with the painting before. 

Flying oranges

These have been in process for several weeks. I’ve learned a lot - some new ways of applying the paint. The fruit seemed to either dry up or mold within a couple days, and my studio time is limited- so I resorted to photos for my source. 










The first layer is very loose- and heavy enough to let me scrape it with a squeegy coated with a stand oil/ turp mixture. It gains a nice surface sheen. 








There’s a lot to think about- needing to either let the technique itself be in charge and learn how to work within that- or learn how to control it. Or maybe use it in bits or selectively.  The overlapping, lost edges, squishiness results of not being in control are a big part of the appeal to me. 

A full day in the studio

So glad to be able to paint all day today. This painting is from about 2 months earlier- I wasn’t able to finish it- and wasn’t happy with the color palette. So I sanded it all over- enough to take down the thick areas- and give a pretty uniform surface texture. 
 I decided to use warmer colors for the table top and background. Raw umber with cad red for the background and yellow ochre with some cad red, black, white for the table top. 

I changed the one smaller grape leaf on the left - it wasn’t a good compositional element. When it’s had s chance to dry a day or 2- I’ll be able to finish up the details in the glass and the grapes. 

Daffodils

Started this one last week. Since the daffodils fade so quickly they were important to get finished first. And took a pic just in case. This one is headed for Minnville also- The Gallery At Ten Oaks. 

Sprouting garlic

A small 8” x10” still life for the McMinnville show in May. I love how the head of garlic sent up the shoots - after sitting in my studio for weeks. 

Still life painting

Process of getting this one done for our April community show- HIP2BS.