Away

Don't be alarmed... I'm not painting this week because we're moving my son up to college. I should be back posting by early next week.

"Blue Origami Crane", oil on canvas board, 6"x8"

I tried using a knife to paint this, but I had more success with brushes. Not much success with the camera, though. The color in this photograph is too yellow, but it was the best I got. The cranes are contagious... my 13-year-old son is madly making them now. He'll probably reach 1,000 and achieve world peace. (That's part of the legend of the origami crane.)

"White Origami Crane", oil on canvas board, 6"x8"

I've gotten obsessed with making these origami cranes. First I looked up the directions on the Internet, but I didn't have the right kind of paper, so it was really impossible, because my paper was too thick to do all these tight little folds. So I went out and bought origami paper. I have a range of colors, so I'm sure I'll fold, and paint, some more cranes!

"Red Finger Hot Pepper" oil on canvas board, 6"x8"

SOLD
I like to go to the big Korean grocery store near me to see what interesting produce they have today.

"Green", oil on canvas, 18"x24"

I ended up pulling some tube greens out of my drawer for the bottle. I just was unable to mix that bright, intense green. I think I mainly used Phtalo emerald, which I don't even remember buying. Also cadmium green, which I used a little in the limes.

"Green" process - day 1

Day 1 of "Green": I got the still life set up and looked at it through my viewfinder. I always use this process, but today I felt tired and it was hard to get the image drawn on my canvas while holding the viewfinder and squinting through it, so I...

...tried something I have never done, and framed the setup, using straightedges taped to the front of the table, and a string across to demarcate the top of the composition. This felt strange to do, but freed me up from holding the little viewfinder and squinting through it.

Day 1 of the painting. After finally getting my composition sketched onto the canvas, I concentrated on mixing as many greens as I could. The glass bottle is a very bright, unnatural green, the limes are a beautiful range from yellow-green to blue-green, the backdrop cloth is a pale minty green, and the whites are picking up reflected and refracted greens. I do not use any tube greens at all, so I have to mix everything. I am using all my yellows (W&N cad yellow pale, Gamblin cad yellow medium, and Gamblin Hansa yellow light) and all my blues (Gamblin ultramarine, manganese blue hue, and phtalo) in different combinations, plus white. I was all I could do today to just cover the whole canvas. I find myself quickly confusing the greens, dirtying brushes, and getting lazy. Time to stop and continue tomorrow. I hope to keep much of the gestural and painterly feel, but clean up and punch up the color, and work on the edges. I may not actually work on it too much longer.

"Bag of Walnuts", oil on canvas panel, 6"x8"

"Hairpins", oils on canvas panel, 6"x8"

I think this old plastic container of hairpins belonged to my grandmother. I've had it for years, and have been wanting to paint it, but I'm not too happy with how this turned out. It was very hard to get the ellipses of the container correct, and it looks lopsided. I did it, though, and so you get to see it!

"Seashell #1", oil on canvas board, 6"x8"

No, I haven't stopped painting, just a very busy week. Back to the small size.

"Blue", oil on canvas, 18"x24"

It's been a busy week, but I finally got to paint today. I did this in a kind of a rush, and I think it shows. But I like what happened in the bottle's shadow in the foreground. That's more like how I'd like to paint. The color of the background cloth did not come out right in the photo.

"Red (Peppers and Beets)", oil on canvas, 18"x24"

I suddenly realized today that these larger canvases, 18"x24", are EXACTLY the same proportions as the 6"x8"! So I decided to treat the composition the same as the little ones - only bigger. The little painting-a-day size felt like it could be done larger, anyway. Tomorrow it's on to Blue.

"Yellow", oil on canvas, 18"x24"

This painting actually took two days. I was tired of painting tiny and decided to make a jump in size. It actually felt too big, but I was committed. This is a painting of all yellow things. The objects are larger than life size. Next I will do "Red", then "Blue", then "Green", all 18"x24". Then maybe I'll be ready to go back to a little painting-a-day.