6 x 8 inch oil "Tides Out"

I did this little painting quickly from a photo I took on one of my outings a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to paint on site but it started to rain so I got this picture instead. I am having a lot of fun with this small format. I am able to finish them in around an hour and this forces me to forget about the details and just paint the shapes and light and shadows.

$50.00

6 x 8 inch oil " Cobble Hill Road"

I did this little plein air right out in my back yard today. It is such a warm sunny day that I just had to get out and paint. I like the way the shadows played on the fields and tried to capture it. I bought and new book on oil painting this week by Kevin McPherson. I really love his style of painting and am trying to get a little looser with my technique. I would recomment this book to anyone wanting to paint plein aire.

8 x 10 inch oil "Cow Bay Flats"

I took my paint box and went on a little drive today, found a spot and painted from my car on the side of the road. This was painted with a knife and done quite quickly. I want to get a little more practice with the knife as it is especially good when on location. I don't need brush cleaner or turps so there is much less mess. I tend to be a very messy painter so the less stuff I take with me the better.

WIP #3

I worked a little today on this painting, base coating the fruit on the table and doing a little more modeling of the fruit. I will wait until it dries a little more to darken up the shadows and finish it up. It will not be long now before i am finished.

WIP day #2

I worked on this painting a little today, modeling the peaches and plums (?). I will go back and tidy up the fruit at the end, adding some more hightlights etc. but they are mainly finished now. I will tackle the fruit on the table probably tomorrow.

20 x 16 inch oil "Tarnished Bowl of Fruit" WIP

I decided to start this one today in my usual style of working oil. Everything is pretty much one layer of paint with a little blending. I found this lovely photo on Wetcanvas.com. Due to the size of this one it will probably take a couple of more sittings to finish. I love the contrast of the red and orange fruit against the dark background. I think this is my favorite type of still life to paint. After looking at this for awhile I noticed that my bowl is looking a little lopsided. I guess I will have to fix that.

8 x 8 inch oil "Cobolt and Orange"

I recently bought Susan Sarback's book "Capturing Radiant Light in Oil" and tried the demonstration that she did in the book. I love her impressionistic style of painting and tried to capture the light as she does. It does somewhat look like the demo although I am not quite there yet. This way of painting starts out by blocking in the main shapes with whatever color you like, keeping the lights with warm colors and the darks and shadows with cool colors. After the 1st step you keep adding colors, mixing only on the painting, until you get the color you want, adjusting the value as needed by adding white. You do all of this using a pallet knife, just to add to the difficulty. This little painting took me around 3 hours. I do not have the skill yet with the knife but I think it will come more naturally as I work with it more.