bricks

.

Self Portrait as a Brick

.

I’m falling in love with this brick. I think this is another self portrait.

Broken Mossy Brick

.

8″ x 6″oil on canvas

I’ve been wanting to paint a brick since I saw Odd Nerdrum’s painting of one. I recently also saw a great painting of a brick by William Wray, whose work I’ve found inspirational.

This was really fun to paint. I may have to do it again.

Orange with Bird Skull

.

 

6″ x 6″ oil on canvas

I never was inspired by this still life but I slogged through it anyway for the practice.

It’s been really cold here, in the teens at night and still below freezing in the daytime, and my studio is not heated so I’ve moved into our downstairs bedroom. I find I’m being more productive here, staying up late painting.

Bird Skull

.

6″ x 8″ oil on canvas

While visiting Silvina Day’s blog, I was admiring the drawings and painting she did of a skull she recently acquired. I was thinking about how much fun it is to draw skeletons when I remembered that we had some tiny bird skulls tucked away in a box that I collected with my daughters, when they were young.

Copy of Horned Melon after J. Matt Miller

.

 

study after J. Matt Miller – 6″ x 8″ oil on canvas

Sometimes I like to do copies of paintings I admire as a way of studying technique. I generally try to keep my work loose and broadly painted partly because I like that kind of work but also because when I try to take my paintings to a higher level of finish, they often fall apart.

I’ve admired the daily paintings of J Matt Miller since I became aware of daily painting blogs. Matt has the ability to reach a high degree of finish while preserving loose brushwork and he has a really beautiful sense of color that makes his paintings glow like jewels. I don’t own many oil paintings, besides my own, but I do own one of Matt’s that I got as a Father’s Day gift last year. It’s titled “Horned Melon” and the study above is a copy of it. You can see the original on Matt’s May 18th blog entry here.

It was really fun to do this, especially since Matt solved all of the problems for me. To see some really masterful still life painting, visit Matt’s Daily Life Painting blog.

Clementine on a plate

.

6″ x 6″ oil on canvas

I’ve been calling these little oranges clementines. That’s how they’re labeled in the grocery store but I’ve never heard the term before. Is this a new variety or have I been missing something?

I like the warm shadows cast by the fruit in this one but I wish I’d given it a bit more convincing volume.

It didn’t take long and it was fun.

Still Life with Sketchbook

 

6″ x 8″ oil on canvas

I’m becoming more interested in the setups as subjects than the still life objects themselves. This was done in about an hour in my darkened studio. I came out to be surprised by blue sky which I haven’t seen in weeks.

Orange and peppers

.

 

6″ x 6″ oil on canvas

I used straight Cadmium Red Medium on parts of the peppers. I like to blast full strength reds into paintings, but it’ll take weeks to dry.

6″ x 6″ oil on canvas

This is a one hour timed study I posted a while back after I worked a bit more on it.

Clementines on Green Plate

.

8″ x 6″ oil on canvas

A quick painting of some clementines a friend brought over for lunch the other day.

Clayboard experiment

.

6″ x 6″ gouache, watercolor and inks on clayboard.

6″ x 8″ watercolor and ink on gessoed board

I was experimenting with water media on non-absorbent supports.

I’m not sure what to make of this yet.