What's Been Happening In The Studio

Hello Everyone,

I finally painted a little bit this week so I thought I'd update everyone on what is happening in the studio.  I only lasted an hour, so it's not much, but I was very happy to have a paint brush in my hand again.

I started this painting a few months ago.  Unfortunately, the photo of the original set up has vanished into the ether, but I used a heavy crimson fabric with gold detailing, along with a silver fruit bowl.  As you can see, the fabric is the main event in this painting.  That is not how I usually do my set ups, but I wanted to try something different and thought this would be a fun way to switch things up.

The top photo was the original block in.  The photo just above is the fourth week working on the painting.  The background is a mixture of alizarin crimson and red, with french ultramarine added for the dark shadows.  If you have ever painted with alizarin, you know that it is extremely transparent.  I spent quite a bit of time getting the coverage on the canvas that I wanted.  I think I painted the background four or five times before the color stopped fading into the canvas.  I also had to let it dry in between coats, so this whole thing took awhile, but it was worth it.

As you can see, I started painting in the gold pattern a little bit at a time.  That was painstaking work and I would have gone nuts if I tried to do it all at once.  I would do a little bit then move on to the pot or the grapes.

Things finally started progressing at a more rapid pace.  In addition to the fabric, there were a lot of grapes to do, as well as all the lemons.  Lemons are very difficult for me (second only to pears), so I would work on the fruit while taking breaks from the pattern.  I guess the theme of this painting was dealing with difficult subjects!

I finished the painting three nights before my surgery.  I was very happy to have it done.  I signed it the other day and as soon as a few weeks go by, I can varnish it.  I'll be very happy to have that done so those dry spots in the fabric will be gone.

I have also been working on another painting for the last few months.  This is one of those paintings where everything is technically correct, but something is just not right.  Eventually I will figure it out.
I worked on it a bit the other day, which was a lot of fun.

This is where I left off before the surgery.  I think the problem is something in the background.  I'm going to redo that and see how I feel about things.

When I went to the studio this week, I painted the blue pattern in on the fruit bowl.  That was all I could manage, but it's a start.

I, (meaning my long suffering husband) also rearranged things in the studio.  If you recall, I bought a kitchen cart for my palette, but ended up using it as a desk.  Since I have had a lot of free time lately, I was thinking about the best way to use the studio and I realized that my small taboret was not the best for the palette, so after switching some furniture around, I have a much more user friendly set up.

I may replace the palette with a large piece of glass, but I'm still pondering that.

I also had some good news.  Just a week after surgery, my painting Brass Teapot With Peaches, won third place in The Art Guild Of Port Washington members show!  I was so happy because I agonized over which painting to put in the show.  I'm so glad that I made a good choice.

Brass Teapot With Peaches, 12x16, oil

So that is what I have going on over here.  I'm happy to be back to blogging and I want to thank all of you for hanging in there with me.  I appreciate it more than I can say.