Roses with Orange - SOLD

"Roses with Orange", 12 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board

Another painting from my recent "roses" obsession.

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Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.==>

Pot with Orange

I love to paint on a square canvas--there are so many possibilities for graphic design.

Purchase this unframed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Still Life with Oranges

"Still Life with Oranges", 12 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
I'm always glad to get back to the still life. It is no less a challenge than a portrait, but I can more easily dismiss the battle with the mind and its seemingly incurable determination to exactly capture the proportions of every nuance of the model. You can basically do what you want with flowers and oranges and vases.



Currently unavailable.

Flowers with Orange - SOLD

"Flowers with Orange", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Panel
I was told by someone I trust that I use too much white, so I am experimenting with more saturated color and using lighter colors to modify rather than using so much white to lighten. I think it will take a lot of experimenting to change this habit, and to find the balance of beautiful cool and warm grays.

SOLD

White Roses with Orange - SOLD

"White Roses with Orange", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
Still life paintings are an opportunity to work out design, color, values, edges and everything else. Many times I scrape the built up paint from a still life painting after working on it for awhile because I need to re-think one of these aspects and I've got too much paint on it to really make any changes.  The only thing I changed in the painting was the vase--half way through I felt the vase I was using wasn't working at all and I plopped in a glass vase to replace it.

Pots with Orange - ON HOLD

"Pots with Orange", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Panel
This is sort of a minimalist still life. As I work on these still lifes I'm not trying to make them pretty or beautiful or even completely accurate--I'm trying to do something else and hopefully I'll figure it out as I get into it. This one, like some of the others, is under the natural light of the skylight, and that is my favorite light to work with, though not always possible with our Northwest weather.

Still Life with Orange

6/8/10 "Still Life with Orange", Oil, 12" x 10"
Yesterday I took the day off with one of my daughters to hike up the Carbon River Road on Mt. Rainier.  We use to be able to drive up this road to the campground below the glacier, but the road was washed out in a storm years ago and never repaired.  Now it serves for us as an early summer hiking destination as the alpine meadows at Sunrise and Paradise don't open sometimes until July because of the snow pack.  Anyway, I'd done this painting a few days ago out on the deck when the sun wasn't sure if it would shine for long.

White Bowl with Orange

3/5/10 "White Bowl with Orange", 10" x 10", Oil
The thing I probably like the most about painting is finding color harmonies.  This one is about yellow/orange and its complement, blue/violet.

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Green Mug with Orange -- SOLD

3/3/10 "Green Mug with Orange", 12" x 9", Oil
I've been working on set ups with close values, so here was trying to get more value contrast.

Orange Plate

2/27/10 "Orange Plate", 10" x 8", Oil
This painting is about having fun with brushwork.  In fact to me, brushwork is one of the most fun things about painting.  Maybe its the kid in me who was never quite satisfied with finger painting.  Right now I use Classic Artist Oils in the studio, not because I know for sure that they are the greatest paints in the world, but because I can buy them in 10 oz caulking tubes at a good price, and I like to use a lot of paint.

Orange

2/25/10 "Orange", 12" x 10", Oil
Because I like to paint natural light, this still life was set up under the opaque skylight, which gives an "overcast" day light.  So the painting was about the big value shapes without the drama of strong shadows, and with soft light coming from above.

Purple Blue Pot

1/15/10 "Purple Blue Pot", Oil, 12" x 8"

Everything on the painting depends on what is on the palette.  How much paint is on the palette and how it is mixed determine how color harmonies develop.  I'm trying to develop better habits related to this.