Still Life with Pruning Shears

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8″ x 8″ oil on linen

One of the things that I hate most about exhibiting is writing an artist statement. Honestly, my statement is that I try to make something I enjoy looking at. I’m not really a very organized painter, as far as what I’m trying to accomplish. I might start out with a vague idea in my head, inspired by something I’ve seen or by another painting I’ve just finished and want to continue on. With the painting above, I started out thinking about Richard Diebenkorn’s early figurative paintings, which are sort of expressionistic……

Richard Diebenkorn “Interior with Flowers” Oil on Canvas
56 3/4 x 38 3/4 inches
1961

… and sort of ended up in pseudo-impressionism. I’ve always loved those early Diebenkorns and find it fascinating how they morphed into the Ocean Park type paintings he’s so famous for.

I tend to spend very little time setting up a still life and prefer to paint a scene I come across. Sometimes I try to put together a thoughtful still life setup but often get bored and just start painting and figure it out as I go. In this painting, I placed the pruning shears toward the end. I’ve painted this blue bowl several times before, in the same size and format and thought this might become part of that series. It’s painted somewhat differently and I’m not sure if it fits as a series yet.  Thinking . . . . .