"Tangerine Peel"

Oil on 6"x6" Ampersand Gessobord


I peeled one of the tangerines, and tried to keep the peel in one piece. I had one little bit break off, but the shapes were very interesting, and I decided to try a painting of them.

"Tangerines" Oil on 6x8 Canvas Panel

These are mineola tangerines. I have tried to paint them before, and they are always harder to do than I think. It took a few tries, but I'm finally happy with it.

"Grapes" 8"x6" Oil on Canvas Panel

Here is the finished painting. It came out a little differently than I had in mind, but I like it just the same. I had fun painting it. There is a bit of glare toward the top right of the painting, in the dark area. I just couldn't seem to get a good picture without some glare. The light area toward the top left, is painted to look lighter, there isn't much glare there at all.

Grapes (in progress) 8x6 canvas panel

I had started a painting of a bread roll,knife and butter the other day... but, it just wasn't going very well. So, I scraped that one, and today, I'm starting this one. More grapes. I love their color, and especially the pretty highlights on them. I hope this one goes better, I'm going to try to slow down, and think more about what I'm painting.

I did a little experiment with a photo of the grapes themselves. I put the image into photoshop, and sampled the colors in different parts of the grapes. It brings the color you click on into a little box on the color chart. Seeing that little square of color separated from the picture looks so different from what I expect. I expected to see some bright deep reds, and they were all more brown than I would have thought, and where some of the grapes seem to turn a bit green, it wasn't green at all, but a very brownish yellow! Where I thought something was dark purple, it wasn't at all. It's a good lesson for me, to realize that sometimes my eyes see what my brain expects them to see, not always what's really there.

"Bananas and Red Grapes" 8"x6" Oil on Canvas Panel

Here is the finished painting, and I really like this one! I had a pleasant time painting it, I didn't change my mind about anything 1/2 way into it like I usually do, and I liked the canvas texture for a change from the smooth hard panels I've been using. I like the smooth panels too, I just think it's nice to change once and a while. I feel like I paint differently on different surfaces. Just the same way as I draw or write differently depending on what kind of pen, or pencil I'm using. It's nothing I do on purpose, it just turns out different all on it's own.

I had posed these bananas and grapes a few different ways, and to help me decide which way I liked best, I took a picture of each different set up. The pictures helped me to remember each of the different ways I had positioned the fruit. Then I could look at them all at once on my monitor, and pick the one I liked best. Then,I set my fruit up that way, and painted it from life.

Bananas and Grapes, in progress...

These bananas are too green to eat yet, so I thought I'd make use of them in the meantime, by painting them. I added the red grapes to the picture, their color seems to go well with the yellow/green of the bananas. I'm painting on a canvas board for a change, (8x6) and I really like how it's coming out... so far.

Lemon Halves 6x6 o/b

Oil on 6"x6" Ampersand Gessobord

Here is the finished painting of the lemon halves. I changed the background color a bit, to a more greenish reddish color, which I'm much happier with. I still wanted the paint to be thin, so I used some liquin with the paint to make it more of a glaze, and then applied it sparingly to the background and shadows. I never used to like liquin very much until I found one that was thinner, Liquin fine detail. It's much easier to use than the regular one, for me anyway. I used to add a little linseed oil to the regular liquin to loosen it up a bit, and that worked nicely too. Anyway, I'm very happy with this painting, I hope you like it too.

Lemon Halves, 6x6 (in progress)

I cut my lemon in half, and started this painting. I noticed that while painting this, I really like the way the surface looks when it doesn't have much paint on it. Just a whisper of paint looks so interesting, I don't want to cover it up with more... I'm going to leave it that way. The lemons have the thicker paint on them, and the background is very thin. I might finish this one today, I hope.

Lemon and Red Grapes 6x6 o/b

"Lemon and Red Grapes" Oil on "6x6" Ampersand Gessobord

Crackers and Jam, 5x7 Oil on board

Crackers and Jam 5x7 (in progress)

my set up...
in progress...
just about finished....

This is one of my favorite snacks. The jelly always looks so pretty on the crackers, I thought I'd like to paint a picture of it. It was getting late in the afternoon, so I thought I'd take some pictures of my subject, choose a picture I liked, and paint from that some other time. So, I took a bunch of pictures,sat at the computer trying to decide on one, and couldn't figure out which picture to use.... so, I wound up just painting from the set up itself like I usually do. I had a nice time painting even tho I prefer painting during the day when the light is better. I positioned a couple of lights toward my easel and that seemed to help. I might still work on the painting tomorrow in the day light.
The finished painting is available on ebay, Click here

Coffee and Cookies, 6"x6" o/b

This is the finished painting. I must have taken 50 pictures of this one, with 2 different cameras, and I finally decided on this image. I'm really going to have to concentrate on finding a way to get good pictures more consistently, so that it doesn't take up a whole afternoon of trial and error to get a decent picture! I'm really happy with this painting, I love cookies and coffee and the cup and saucer pictured is from a set of fine china that I received as a wedding present 25 years ago. (and I bet I can count on one hand how many times I've used those cups, I should use them more often!)
This is done in oil on an Ampersand Gessobord.

Coffee and Cookies 6"x6" o/b

Two of my favorite things are coffee and cookies, so I thought that would make a nice subject to paint. I used my good china cup and saucer, and some cookies I recieved for Christmas. ( I would have preferred to use some chocolate cookies, but I ate all the chocolate ones already) I'm not sure I won't work a little more on this tomorrow, and then take a better picture.

Broken Egg shells in a Measuring Cup 5x7 o/b

I made pancakes the other morning, and noticed how I had left the egg shells in the measuring cup. It looked so interesting to me, I wanted to try and paint it. This picture isn't the best, I'll have to try to get a better one tomorrow.

I'm finally happy with the surface I'm painting on. I was always experimenting with different types of ways to seal the gessoed surface of the board, so it didn't have such a dry feel to it while I painted. I tried everything from a coat of acrylic paint, or acrylic medium, sprays, turpentine thinned oil paint, different medium mixes with paint... on and on.. and on.... until I'd forget what I had coated which boards with which thing... and most of the time the surface would wind up too slick, and frustrating to paint on. Anyway. I just finally decided to try brushing some paint on the board, and wiping it down until there is just a stain of paint left on the surface. And that seems to work for me. Why I couldn't have thought of that in the first place, I don't know. :)

Apples, 5x7 oil on board

Red Apple is Sold

It's been quite a while since I've done any painting, the holidays kept me busy, and then I was sick with a bad head cold and cough for about a week, but that's all over now. I thought I would start the year off with a simple subject, just to get reacquainted with my paints. So, I did a small painting of a red apple and one of a green apple. That was enough to get me excited about painting again. Hopefully, I'll be painting regularly again.

I started this blog about 7 or 8 months ago, in hopes that it would encourage me to paint more often. It has done that and more. I love visiting other artist's blogs, and being able to read about what they are up to, and what new work they've just done, leaving a comment, and getting comments back, it's really been wonderful. Looking at beautiful artwork makes me want to paint, and with all these art blogs to look at, it's a great way to get myself in the mood to paint. Plus, I've learned many new things about working with a computer that I never would have known! So, I'm looking forward to this new year, and I'm excited about getting more painting done, developing my skills, and learning more new things.
I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays, and thank you for stopping by to visit my blog, it's greatly appreciated!