I've started another painting while I'm here near New York City... this time a still life of those luscious pears. I set the trio up under a single light in the basement, and am having fun painting this 6 x 12 acrylic.Here's the first pass across the white canvas, blocking in the large darks (gee, I do that a LOT), with the ultramarine blue and burnt umber. Who cares about edges? I found that the paintings in the Met that caught my eye from across the room had a strong value structure--especially the Rembrandts and paintings from the 1800s. Oh, well, there were many paintings that were about value structure--not until I got into the Impressionists did I see that change. I learned and reinforced so much from that visit.
Here's the source material for this painting--I took a photograph, but am painting the pears from life, not from this image. I share it with you to show that simple subjects can come from your local grocers. These pears cost a small amount--the painting will hopefully transcend their temporary existence on my nephew's shelf.
The Met still comes to my mind and here is an image of a detail of the HUGE canvas by Rosa Bonheur. This image, even only part of the huge canvas, would represent about seven FEET of her master work in oil! Look at the values and how they reverse from the backs of the horses to the legs. Light backs, dark legs. midvalue surrounds the backs, mid-values surround the legs! Amazing.... The pears do the same thing!!You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
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1 comment:
How very exciting it must have been to see The Horse Fair. Its my very favorite painting since I was small, and I have a large print of it on the dining room wall. An art historian who stayed at our B&B gave me some background on it: Rosa B often disguised herself as a young man so she could paint unmolested around male hangouts such as horse fairs. She painted herself into this masterpiece as the young "man" in the blue shirt/black cap on the center horse. She is the only one in the picture looking directly out at the viewer.
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