Tuesday, October 1, 2024

This is the first step of what will be Still Life 26. I’m attempting to do future small still-life paintings in three sessions. For these realistic paintings, I’ve switched to oil-primed smooth Belgium Linen. It’s very expensive but these are small paintings. Oil primer does not suck the oil out of the paints as does acrylic primed canvas. Also, it’s a very smooth surface that is easily covered with a single coat. With the rougher canvas, it’s difficult to completely cover in one or two passes. I will attempt to finish this painting in three sessions but I know that won’t happen. The goal is to finish it in about two weeks instead of months.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

I added menu items Still Life 19, Still Life 20, Still Life 21, Still Life 22, Still Life 23, and Still Life 24 to the menu. On October 1st I’ll start painting six new still life paintings. One will be a small orchid in a small pot. The other five will be similar to the still-life paintings I’ve been working on for the last several months. I’m not that pleased with several of the still-life paintings that are nearly finished. I need to finish these new six paintings by early December.

I’ll be taking a different approach with these paintings. In the 80’s and 90’s when I painted I painted the distance to the foreground, basically top to bottom, trying to paint it accurately on the first pass. That’s what I’m going to do from now on. When I start a painting I’ll try to paint as much of it as I can accurately in one sitting instead of painting a loose underpainting and slowly tightening it up over many, many sessions. I think I wasted a lot of time but that’s ok. These 8 x 10 paintings I’ve been doing with a wine bottle, glass, apple, and table are small and not complex. I should be able to do one in three sessions but the first session will be long, maybe six to eight hours. Between now and October 1st I’ll draw the objects in the paintings onto the canvases and then spray the canvases with a fixative so the pencil won’t smudge into the oil paint.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Worked on all of Still Life 18. Still work to do on this one. I don’t have much confidence that this one will turn out well. Like Still Life 15, it has a big blank and dark area. I’m thinking of putting a window or small vase with a flower there standing out in the dark. Maybe an orchid.