Noh - SOLD

I borrowed this Venetian porcelain doll head from my art teacher. It made me think of Japanese mask theater. It took a while to come with a composition that made the idea clear. Finally, a little pink wild rose from a bush up my street did it. I am not much for painting flowers, but it was perfect.

I had a lot of trouble painting this still life. For the sake of experiment I did the underpainting in Prussian Blue. The thought of Michelangelo’s blue/green underpainting was on my mind. A mistake. Prussian Blue is such a cold tone. It took me the better of two weeks to warm this up. But oil is so forgiving. It let me warm up the parts I wanted warm and keep the vase cool and crisp. Then I struggled with the flower. As I said – flowers are not my thing, I didn’t even have pigments suitable for flowers. Trying to mix cool and hot pink based on Alizarin Crimson was a loosing battle. I had to go and buy quinacridone magenta, and then borrow a smidgen of quinacridone violet, and that did it. And what in world possessed me to choose the vase that has 9 ellipses? I must be a glutton for punishment. I tweaked and corrected the darned ellipses until the thought of switching to abstract painting style settled prominently in my head.

The moment when I finally painted my initials was a real victory.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel.

Sentries - SOLD

Trying to figure out techniques of Old Masters I chose a simple composition and dramatic light. I am mesmerized by chiaroscuro effect (a contrast of light and dark) in the old paintings and especially Caravaggio. It has proven to be very hard to find a good detailed description of oil glazing method the way they did it back then. I read numerous books containing sparse and cryptic outlines, and as a result tried a sequence of steps that some authors attribute to Caravaggio himself, others call it the Dutch or Flemish technique used by Jan van Eyck and his contemporaries.

I planned to document each step, but it didn’t work that way. I would get all caught up painting and forget to stop and photograph various stages. But I have the main steps captured.

Sentries - Imprimatura

I did a detailed charcoal drawing of my still life on gessobord. I fixed the charcoal with workable fixative and let it dry. Then I covered the entire surface with initial oil layer called Imprimatura. I used Burned Sienna for that because of the fast drying properties of oil earths and to create warm undertones. I let that dry completely.

Sentries - Grisaille underpainting

The next stage was Grisaille underpainting. This is a monochromatic painting, basically a grayscale to establish values, and is done using lean oils in dark and white. It is sometimes called Dead Layer. Or when it is done with an earth color, like I did here using Burnt Umber, it is called Verdaccio.

It is a very important step and has to be done just right because it is hard to fix values later. I spent a lot of time here. Then I let it dry for several days.

Sentries - first glazes

Now it was time to bring in color glazes. I had a bunch of trouble here because I couldn’t figure out my glazing medium. I tried using my general Galkid Lite oil medium, but it was too thick and viscous to spread out the way I wanted. I got another medium recommended in one of my books, but it gave me a blindingly shiny paint film, so sparkly that I thought I’d have to junk this painting. Finally I tried a very liquid medium, practically a plain linseed oil, and it worked. While I was struggling with my medium problem I stopped taking photos because I thought I would have to abandon this painting and start over. The photo above was taken when I managed to quiet down the shine.

It didn’t take many glazes to get to the final values, maybe 4 or 5. Probably because I spent all this time with my Grisaille layer, and my values were well defined. At this point the painting was pretty much painting itself. When I got close to completion I added details,  dots and imperfections on the pears’ skin, deepened the background and painted the texture on the wooden box. Then I added one more glaze of colors to the pears to unify everything. Finally I painted the last glaze of pure medium to even out the sunken areas. Finito!

Many of my friends and family are of the opinion that I should start marketing my work. These little painting tiles are perfectly sellable, they say. I finally gave in and after some research and oscillation chose an online gallery Daily Paintworks. Check it out for many wonderful original paintings and an amazingly talented group of artists. I am happy to be in such a great company! Here’s the beginning of my galleryon the Daily Paintworks site.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel.

Memory Blocks - SOLD

These look antique, don’t they? They are actually custom-made and very recently. I found a lovely artist who makes wonderfully and believably antiquated toys. She worked with me and created a set of these amazing blocks, that I am now painting. The lady on right is my grandmother Manya, the photo was taken around 1925.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel.

My cup runneth over

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (Psalm 23:5)

The real story is much simpler. I wanted to paint white porcelain. I combed through my local thrift stores (with my husband waiting patiently on sidewalks outside) and found cups that I liked. I wanted 3 cups to make a stack. The proprietor  listened indulgently to my story of still life painting, but still didn’t want to sell me 3. This was a set of 8 cups and 8 saucers, and he wasn’t going to split them. But the price he gave was so delightful that I shut up and took them all. Now I am a proud owner of 16 pieces of translucent and delicate Japanese porcelain that I don’t have room to store and don’t know what to do with. I painted these 3 cups. I use saucers to feed the cat. Now what?…

Painting porcelain was not trivial. I did not achieve the results I envisioned. This is done using extended Alla Prima method, and the cups’ translucency eluded me. I think I need to use Dutch or Flemish glazing technique to get that. That is once I figure out how to do that.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel. To buy this painting click here.

Brown Betty

I found this little one-cup Brown Betty teapot in a thrift store on Clark street. Forever I was wondering how do artists come up with all these interesting or old objects for their still lives… Do they have hundred year old attics full of dusty finds?  The answer is – thrift stores! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, quite literally.

These days, when we take our walks in the neighborhood, my saintly husband takes his iPod or a book with him and waits patiently on a sidewalk while I hunt for my still life objects. I then emerge – dusty, sweaty and triumphant – with another $2 trophy. This Brown Betty served well as an art model and also is doing a great job brewing my morning tea.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel. To buy this painting click here.

Granny Smith and Gala

This one is from the series “Which does not belong?” And the answer is not obvious. If you are thinking Granny Smith because it’s the only green, think again. It is the Gala apple at the upper right that doesn’t belong. When my husband grabbed it from the setup and bit into it – it was mealy and untasty, and he complained. But what did he expect?! It was a prop after all!

I meant to work this still life Alla Prima, but was struggling with the texture for the apples – I wanted it smooth and shiny and didn’t know how to make it. I took it to my painting class in a half finished state so I could get some suggestions. Ed, my teacher, looked at it and said that first I must do the background all over and put really dark darks in the shadows because it would not be easy to add to it after smooth apples are painted. And he wanted me to work the background into the apple forms, so that later the apples would appear in front. So I worked the background most of the class time, and by the end it was really beautiful … and I nearly lost the apples, they were painted over . Sigh… I started trying to find my apples again, but the time ran out. At this point it would have been best to let the painting dry for a day or two, but I couldn’t wait. I took the painting home and spent another couple of hours and found my apples. Not quite Cézanne’s Still Life with Basket of Apples, but I am pleased with my efforts.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel. To buy this painting click here.

Orange and silver

Another still life study in oil. I knew this little jug was good for something when I rescued it from a  dumpster all these years ago. It’s just I never could figure out for what until now. It makes a handsome still life prop!

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel. To buy this painting click here.