Oil Still Life Painting Workshop July 18th to 22nd, 2016

I'm getting excited about my upcoming summer still life painting workshop! The workshop is July 18th to 22nd. 5 days of painting.
There are still a couple of spaces in the workshop open, check out my site for all the info

ARC Salon and OPA National Show

I'm happy to report that I'm a finalists again in this years Art Renewal Center's 2013-2014 Salon Competition with my painting "Lemons, Bagged and Boxed" Oil on linen 14"x16" $3,800

This painting is on display at the Oil Painters of America's National Show in Bennington, Vermont. The show runs June 7th to July 27th.

Lemon painting step-by-step

I started this painting by doing a quick drawing of the outlines of the lemons and box. I drew the box with a 2h pencil. I used a ruler to measure 3 inches in in from the edges so I would be sure to have the same size box all around the painting. I then used the ruler to draw straight lines and find the vanishing point of the places the box joins at the edges. 

After drawing the box I found the placement of the lemons by looking at my setup and comparing the size and shapes of the lemons. I checked the horizontal lines to compare the top or bottom of different lemons with other lemons, tying all the relationships of the lemons together. 

As I say in the classes I teach "It's like a puzzle. The more parts we get in the right place, the easier it is to put the other parts in their right places."

 I used a stick of charcoal to draw in the big shapes of the lemons. I deliberately left the drawing of the lemons a little loose and unfinished so that I could make changes as I started to paint. I like to work on a drawing that is not too tight so I can feel excitement as I start to paint and not feel like I'm just filling in the drawing. 

Start of the first coat:

Here I'm using a limited palette of earth colors. By using a limited palette I can focus on getting the big flow of light and value and not worry too much about color. 

I use mineral spirits to thin the paint a little in the first coat. I started by blocking in the lemons. At this stage it can be hard to judge the value of the paint compared to the white of the linen. As I go over the all of the linen with paint, it becomes easier to see the values. Reminds me of those optical illusions where the value of a square is only relevant as compared to the value of the squares around them. http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html 

Here is how the painting looks when I 'm finished with the first coat of paint. I try to keep this coat loose and exciting so that I feel like coming back and painting more! If you squint your eyes down the value relationships are starting to work. 

Start of second coat:

Here I start using a full palette of colors. I go over the whole painting bringing the color closer to what I'm seeing. I deliberately do not try to finish or model anything in the second coat. I find if I do finish things too much in the second coat it makes it harder to want to come back and paint over the finished parts. I like the look of having a least 3 coats of paint. So the second coat is just to bring the color closer to the real thing I'm painting and build the paint up. I paint very thinly so it helps to have at least 3 layers of paint. I use linseed oil as my medium for the second coat. I started working from the left to right and from dark to light. Slowly going over the linen.

Start of the third coat:

I used a full palette of colors again. This time I used a medium of linseed oil and stand oil mixed on my pallet. It's an oil rich medium but the Artfix linen I use is very thirsty so it works well. The stand oil adds a buttery quality to the paint and helps level the brush strokes.  I start by working from dark to light so I start on the lemon in the back left. I paint over it trying to finish it as I go. Then, I move down to the left bottom lemon and, starting from the shadow side blocking in the big light and dark. Much like in the second coat but this time I start to model and finish the lemon by painting all the little changes as the light flows across it's form. I do this by painting both the shadow and light side of the lemon with their local color and then working in to the wet paint to adjust and model things.

Working my way along the lemons.

Finished painting "Lemons in Box" Oil on Linen 11"x 16"

 

Finished Lemon Painting

Here is an image of my finished lemon painting as well as a few detail shoots.  If you click on the images you get a bigger view.

Finished painting

Detail 1

Detail 2

It's always interesting to me to think about the light a painting may end up in or may be shown in.  I work with north light or at night with full spectrum florescent lights, lighting my painting as I'm working on it.  When it's shown in a gallery with hot and warm halogen or incandescent light the painting can look a bit (or a lot) different then when I'm painting it.  I've been trying to make sure I look at my painting under stronger lighting at times as I'm working on it to see how it looks in this light.

Of course whoever ends up buying the painting will probably have different lights as well....  I'm also always curious to see how my paintings look on different computer monitors.  I edit an image to look good on what I'm using but never know how it will look on others screens...   Ah, the life of an image maker is an interesting one!

Lemon painting continued

I've been working on my lemon painting.  Here is a photo of it at the moment.  Working on small changes on the lemons as well as the box.

Late night lemon painting

I've been working on my lemon painting again tonight.  I tend to listen to music when I paint.  Tonight I was listening to a little of the Ethiopian singer Gigi as well as Bob Dylan and CBC radio's As It Happens - The Midnight Edition.  I tend to listen to music or the radio when I paint...

For this coat of the painting I'm starting to really model the form of the lemons, it's lots of fun :)

Here are some photos from tonight.

Start of third coat on the lemons and black background

 

 

 

Working alone slowly :)  It's a very meditative state I get in when painting, very focused and relaxed.

Done for the night.  This was around 5 hours of painting.