Friday, March 30, 2012

This is my first outdoor still life. I've painted outdoors and still life, but never have married the two. It is more difficult than painting still life in the studio. The sun peaks in and out of clouds and the heat can get unbearable if you are right up next to the still life while its sunny. It does help you see the color of the light and makes you work quickly. When I first finished, I was not happy with it. Partly because my neck was burnt and the sun made it impossible to see the value I was putting down . I did  enjoy how the bowl turned out. The inside was silver lined and it took in all the cool color of the sky while the outside was a dark reflective metal that was picking up the reflection of the sun off the cloth. Now I enjoy the painting with it in my studio. Painting still life outdoors is something I plan on taking up more often this year. Next time I will find a nice shady spot to stand in.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Practice on the little stuff
Even with the good weather I've still been working a lot on still life. Part of the reason is to build up enough work to show together, and the other is working from life on this scale is good practice for me to do large outdoor work. The little geisha doll painting above was done back in February. It has been sitting in the room that we did still life in at the pump house for as long as I can remember. It always caught my eye but seemed too complex and small for me to tackle. After looking at it so many times I finally decided to paint it by breaking it down into small shapes. Once this painting was done I started challenging myself to paint more complex items. So far it seems to be helping with my plein air work. It is getting easier for me to see the abstract shapes instead of the preconceived idea of an object. A problem I have outdoors is bringing form to objects as they recede. The more I'm thinking about it, color and temperature change seem to be what is stopping the objects from being modeled in my outdoor landscapes. Now I continue to practice on still life and apply it to my other work.