Original Oil Painting Lemon Rose with Strawberries

Lemon Rose with Strawberries

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14" x  11"

Painted on Ampersand Gessobord.

These are a few of my favorite things....

Original Oil Painting Strawberry Creamer

Strawberry Creamer

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12" x 12"

Painted on Ampersand Gessobord.

First Strawberries of the season and so good! 

Original Oil Painting Sunflower and Strawberries

Sunflower and Strawberries

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8" x 10"

Painted on Ampersand Gessobord

Final touches added, yeah!

Original Oil Painting Strawberry Sunflower

Sunflower Strawberries

8" x 10"

Painted on Ampersand Gessobord.

It has been awhile since my last post. I haven't been able to get myself to pick up a brush. That happens from time to time. So I spent my time surfing the net and looking at all the beautiful art work. Usually that gets me going but this time it did not work. Then I started to gather things from the refrigerator and garden arranging some still life(s) and photographing them. I would take maybe 72 pictures to find one or two I liked. I find still life arrangements a lot of work. It is not easy to create compositions that work plus adjusting lighting and strawberries rolling the wrong way. 

  Well today I started this small one. Tomorrow I hope to added the finishing details: checking the colors and fixing any color that looks muddy and brightening the highlights. It is always easier to do this when the paint is dryer. 

Original Oil Painting Cherry on Top

Cherry on Top

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10" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is back to painting! This is a painting of a still life I created. Getting all those cherries to turn the right way was quite frustrating but in the end they all behaved. They must know Christmas is around the corner and Santa is coming. HO-HO

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and will have an awesome Christmas. Thanks so much for visiting my blog and my paintings. If you are looking for a Christmas painting please do not hesitant to check out my DailyPaintWorks Gallery. 

Original Oil Painting Lemon Cherries Kiwi

Lemon Cherries Kiwi 

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

I painted this from a photograph of a still life I created in my studio. When I sent up a still life I would use several different compositions before deciding on one. I take photos of each to view and compare. The Fruit Maze was the one I choose to paint first. This was a second choice I saved for later. It is more complicated and I wanted to practice with the fruit alone before adding my orange flowers. I am not sure what the flowers are called, a student gave me some seeds along time ago. They come back every year and transplant very well. Thanks Abby for the seeds. I enjoy the flowers every year! 

Original Oil Painting Toppled Apples

Toppled Apples

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord. 

This week I got out my Indian corn and apples to create this autumn painting. Every subject in this painting has multiple colors which was an eye and mind super challenge to say the least. (I think my eyes were ready to pop out of my head at times.) When you are dealing with so many colors it is extremely important to stay calm, take many breaks, slow down and do a lot of pre-mixing of colors. I think tomorrow I will take a break and hopefully get outside and enjoy the wonderful fall colors.

After posting this painting on Facebook and seeing it everyday, I decided to make some subtle changes. The not so subtle change was the table top. It was way too bright, light, grey violet. I felt it was competing with the apples. I am much happier with a tone down table. I posted the first version below. See if you agree with me. Did I make the right changes?

Original Oil Painting Relax Honey Dew

Relax Honey Dew

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12" x 12" 

Painted on gessobord.

I painted this from a still life in the studio. I like the blue green honey dew with the red strawberries such a nice compliment. I kept the rest more neutral in color to show off the compliments more. It has a calmness to it that I don't fully understand why but I like it. I thought about adding some seeds and leaves to the table but my gut said no. I would loose the stillness and calmness that I liked about the still life.   

Original Oil Painting Fruit Maze

Fruit Maze

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

I have been busy lately but found some time to paint fruit. The kiwi fruit is always a fun challenge with its yellow green and blue green color, pattern with seeds and its' fuzzy outer skin. The biggest challenge I found was the composition. It took me over an hour to arrange the fruit and get the lighting correct. I decided to try a warmer light with this composition which in my mind gives it a softer look. Thanks for viewing my fruit maze!

Original Oil Painting Fragile Glass

Fragile Glass

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Here is another painting of Goodwill items: the glass decanter and gold reflective metal bowl. Yes, the gold is not real but it is some kind of metal bowl painted gold and the decanter has a heavy metal ornate handle with lid. I threw in a vintage table cloth and fruit to complete the still life. 

I gave it the title: Fragile Glass because I keep thinking the glass will break some day, so better paint it now. The handle and lid will last forever but they are nothing with out the glass. 

I loved painting all the reflections and I like how the cloth recedes while the leaves come forward. There is a lot of pull and push in the composition if that makes any sense?  

By the way that is not an apple in the bowl. It is a plum that hasn't ripened yet, but by the time I finished this painting the plum was rip to eat, yum!

Original Oil Painting Unraveled

Unraveled

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Fruit Overflow

Fruit Overflow

11" x 14"

Painted on gessobord.

The strawberries and grapes are the stars of this painting. The red and green complimentary colors really sing with the more neutral background colors. Yes the orange is trying to hide again, but I really needed him on the left to balance the strong red and green combo on the right. Lots of reflective color in this painting. Hope you can find them all. 

Original Oil Painting Vintage Creamer

Vintage Creamer

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Here is another painting I made of a creamer. I love finding these vintage creamers and other things at Goodwill. In this painting I worked hard at keeping the strongest highlights on the center of interest which means making the grapes, orange and dish in the background more subdued. That orange kept wanting to jump into center stage but after painting it three times I am satisfied where it is: strong but silent?

Original Oil Painting Glass with Fruit

Glass with Fruit

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10" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

My goal in this still life was to limit my number of brush strokes painting the fruit. To keep the colors bright and deliberate. It worked out well with the oranges, plum, cherries and even the silver bowl but the glass bottle was a different story. There was too many colors blending together for that to work for me. 

Original Oil Painting High Key Fruit Bowl

High Key Fruit Bowl

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

This painting is very different than what I usually paint. It is call high-key painting. High-key painting uses a lot of tints and mediums. It is like all the dark and middle values are lightened. It gives the painting a light, airy quality. I painted on a slightly rougher surface, to enhance the sparkle. This is very different from my more dramatic paintings. It is just another way of expression. I hope you enjoy viewing my lighter way of painting. 

Original Oil Painting Geraniums and Apples

Geraniums and Apples

16" x 20"

Painted on stretch canvas.

Here is my final painting! I added a small red petal on the right to help balance the large apple on the far left. I put in speed bumps in the middle of the table cloth, no more straight path to the bottom. I also darken the bottom of the red apple in the background on the left to add a little more shape. Then I glazed over the left table leaf to darken it with olive green. Lots of little tweaks and a better photo, yeah!

IS IT DONE??   I will let you know. I am taking a break and will look at it tomorrow.

Original Oil Painting Sunflowers and Peaches

Sunflowers and Peaches

12" x 12"

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Here is a still life with three of my favorite things to paint: sunflowers, peaches and copper. It took many photos to get a good image to post. The weather here is really up and down. One day it is 85 sunny and muggy and the next 62 and raining.

Original Oil Painting Grapefruit Petunias

Grapefruit Petunias

10" x 10"

Painted on gesso panel.

It has been a slow week. Many interruptions and obligations to attend to. Today however I finally finished my painting, yeah!! I worked from a photos on this painting. One photo had fall leafs in  the silver bowl but I decided to put purple petunias in the bowl instead. I used my own reference photos for the petunias. The dish and grapefruit came from my master course photo I am taking. Of course the purple goes so well with the gold since they are complimentary colors. In fact there is a lot of complimentary play in this painting.

Original Oil Painting White Daisies with Fruit

White Daisies with Fruit

16" x 20"

Painted on stretch canvas.

Finally had time to deal with the tapestry. I brighten the table top in front of the focal point and tamed down the tapestry in the shadows. I also brighten the flowers more by restating the highlights and changed the shadow color on the center white daisy. Now the center flower sings. Please note: if you saw this post before I have updated the photo. The first photo was wash out or over expose photo? So I put a light coat of medium over it and took another try photographing it.

Original Oil Painting Touch Fruitball

Touch Fruitball

10" x 10"

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I finished my fruit painting today. When I finish a painting I am looking at color values, edges, shadows and blending. I call it Touch Fruitball because it reminds me of touch football. The football in this case is the orange and the pear and banana want it.