Sallow Blue

Self Portrait oil on canvas 14 x 18"    2002

White Pitcher

Even though this still life is fairly simple, it has always been one of my favorites. It used to hang in a light wooden frame (that matched the bowl here) in my kitchen, and I couldn't keep from pausing to look at it. Oil on canvas board, 11 x 14".

Redhead

This is the same model from yesterday's post, The Jacket. She was seated in the chair with the props on the table. The wall decorations, floor pattern and tablecloth design were all invented into this painting. Oil on canvasboard, 16 x 20".

Mother Nature 3

Well I think it is almost finished now!

Still Life with Books

My current oil painting is going very slow. Mother Nature gets only a few details added a day, since I am busy facing an impending move, figuring out what to do for the holidays, and of course living life with a two-year-old. Her big thing right now is puzzles, so I spend a lot of time on the floor putting pieces in for her!

Well, until M. Nature looks different enough to show her face to the world again, here's something else! This oil painting of heavy books was the last piece I did for a school class. It features my desk lamp, an old mug I bought from a thrift store and kept pencils in, my unabridged dictionary (pale cream) and the largest textbook I ever had to buy for school: History of Art. In the spotlight is a small horse figurine that I picked up in an antique shop one time. I was really taken by his character.

I am really sad that I can't find him since our last move. I am pretty sure I packed him away somewhere carefully, but he's not to be found now. I really hope I didn't loose him. I don't know what kind of metal he's made of, but it's quite soft. Originally he was standing on a thick rectangular base, but I felt I had to free him of that and whittled it off with a pocketknife while I was visiting my best friend Rachel. I remember her making a comment about how that was a gesture of the artist in me: if something wasn't quite right aesthetically, I had to change it! Well, I did feel much better to see him free-standing.

I'm going to look for the sketches I did of him, since the details here are a bit blurry. I'm not quite sure which sketchbook they're in though, so it may take me a little while.


Here's a detail shot of the pattern on the mug.

Golden Gate Bridge

So far this is the only painting I have ever done on site, plein aire.

I had a friend who was in no way an artist, but one day he said "let's go paint the bridge, I've never done that before!" He bought himself a canvas, borrowed an easel from somebody and a few brushes and paint from me, and we set up on the sand on Baker Beach at about six in the morning. We stayed way too long, the light was already shifting shadows far beyond where they had started. It was a lot of fun, though.

Near the end when I was stepping back to evaluate my painting, a sudden gust of wind blew it off my easel face down in the sand. I brushed most of it off, but a lot of sand grains remained, giving a lot of texture to the surface that I hadn't exactly planned on!

It is oil on canvas, 12 x 16"


Here we are on the beach painting.

Metal Pitcher and Blue Porcelain

A still life oil painting I did several years ago. It was quite a challenge, rendering the two opposite textures: shiny yet rather matte white and blue porcelain next to the highly reflective metal pitcher. We had a metal pitcher just like it in my home growing up, used for milk. I remember many times staring fascinated at my distorted reflection in it during breakfast. Perhaps that is why I chose the object, since it was so familiar and almost dear to me in a mundane sort of way.

I didn't quite finish the red onions, though.


Detail of the reflection.
This painting is 16 x 20".

You can see the preliminary sketches of this painting here.

The Iron

As a deviation from my normal work, here is something different to show you. This is one of my still life paintings. I simply call it The Iron. The ellipses may be slightly off on the water jar, and the antique spray-bottle unclear, but my favorite part is the sheen on the sole of the iron, and the reflection in it of that blue checker pattern. This painting is oil on canvasboard, 16 x 20"