Tradition Continued Photo and Sketch 5" x 7" oil on canvas

I took this photo of my grand daughter the day I introduced her to beignets at Morning Call. By the time she was finished she was wearing most of the powdered sugar that did not reach her mouth. I was drinking the Cafe au Lait while she sipped on her chocolate milk.  
After making a 5 x 7 inch print of the photo in grayscale, I folded the print in halfs and in quarters both length and width. I then marked the edges of the print with a pen so that I could easily see where the folds of the paper were. I marked the 5 x 7 inch canvas with the same divisions on the edges. How much easier and accurate to sketch it on the canvas this way! Notice I eliminated the cup in the middle of the photo and just extended the milk carton. I changed some of the values from the photo in order to help the composition.

Shadow Bigger Than Life 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

When I put together this still life, the colors of the blue-green background, the red-violet flower and the muted red-orange tablecloth seemed pleasing together. Looking on the color wheel I realized that I was using the tertiary colors. No wonder they looked good. And the white bottle takes on the colors of the surrounding area so it unites these tertiary colors.

Even though I got too tight with this painting, I am happy with the results. The flower could have been a bit smaller and closer to the bottle. But the stem does pull both together and the wall shadow helps too. The composition was risky and maybe it is not the best, but certainly not the worst I could have come up with!

Shadow Bigger Than Life - Sketch 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I am depending on this bottle shadow on the back wall to pull this painting together since both bottle and flower only connect with a stem. We'll see.

I tried to get a handle on the values so that when I start the painting I can be more aware of the dark against light, light against dark dynamics. For the sketch I used Burnt Umber and turp. Lifted out the light areas with turp and used more umber for the darks. This will be my underlay for the start of my painting. Now all I have to do is fill in the blanks with the correct color values!

Color My World 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The Challenge: To paint a white object against a background of primary and secondary colors. No earthcolors on the palette. The study is to help the artist see the surrounding colors in the white object.

I debated whether to paint the white object in first or the surrounding material. Gut feeling led me to the white object first. It was important to get the values right on the bottle first in order to play the light against dark, dark against light game against the background.

I found that the colors that reflected on the bottle were more noticiable on the shadow side of the bottle. I think this was because the bottle had a soft luster to it rather than a high gloss. It definitely glowed with its surrounding colors. It was awesome. I hope the finished painting did it justice.

The Red Box

A blank canvas can be a daunting thing. But a painting gone bad is even worse. Being the day after Mardi Gras I thought I would paint something with green, purple and gold. I chose a Cupie doll; that doll with the big eyes that could have been a forerunner to the Precious Moments.  Even had the title picked out "Hey Mister Throw Me Something". Yes the title a bit trite and possibly over used. The painting was doomed to start. The lighting on the set up was too harsh and the doll was looking more and more like Chucky. Really scary. It was one of those situations when enough was enough. It is a humbling thing to admit defeat. But there I said it. I pulled out my little red box that Carol Marine gave us at the workshop to make sure it was closed up tight.
The next painting will be better. How could it get any worse!

Abe Lincoln Challenge

This weeks challenge was to paint old Abe in either of three ways. I chose using Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber with Permalba White for adjusting the tones of the painting. (Taking the photo of the painting still wet continues to createn reflection issues. The bluish area on the right side of the head is really a deep value.)

Well ok he looks like a cross between Abe Lincoln and Pierce Brosnon, what's wrong with that? Maybe you see someone else there instead. All in all not being a portrait artist, I think it came out ok.

I first mixed a large batch of  equal parts Ult blue and Burnt umber. Layed in the sketch with this mixture wiping out with a rag for the lights and using less turp for the darks. When I got an image that looked half human, I started adding variations of the white to this mix to do the overlay. It really was fun to do.

The Magnificent Green Apple 4" x 4" Oil on gessoboard

Yes another bottle. What a wonderful magnifier it became when the green apple was placed behind it! I feel the brush strokes on this painting has given it a more painterly look which is my major goal. I changed the color of the background midway through. I had a midtone blue green but with that "thalo" green apple I wanted something more subdued but yet would help it pop. So I chose gray green which I mixed by using a significant amount of cad reds and alizarins for the graying process. That hint of red in there seemed to have done it's job. However I still wonder had I used a red violet gray in the background if that would have been better. What do you think?

The Magnificent Green Apple Sketch 4" x 4"

I have decided to start another paint challenge like the last, hoping to be more aware of each stroke without the blending. Here is the value sketch, a real general idea of light direction, medium and dark tones. The composition looks balanced and pleasing to the eye. The negative space is interesting. So the color mixing begins.

"Oh I Wish..." 4" x 4" Oil on gessoboard

The challenge- Mix a color spot, put it down, mix another, put it down.... It is an excellent exercise in seeing color spots and their relationship next to one another. The final painting should look kind of patchy. No blending!  OOPs I did blend a little in some areas. I had a devil of a time keeping the patchy look on the label using only the half inch bright brush. All in all I think it made me looser. I think I will do another setup and do that challenge again. I love the look.

I am supposed to be looking down on the bottle. I hope that came across ok. I think I can do better next time.

Oh I Wish... Sketched in on gessoboard 4" x 4"

This week's challenge is to paint by being aware of each stroke of color. Mix a color, make a stroke, mix another, make a stroke. Very tedious but Carol gaurantees that it will get me looser. I am willing to become a "looser" artist.

This is the start of the painting. I chose another bottle. No I don't get tired of painting bottles! I first toned my background with Burnt Sienna. Then I sketched in my bottle with the same color.  I wiped out to get my lights, and the dark tones I added more burnt sienna. Now I am ready to add the colors.

Can you guess what the bottle is by the Title?

The Zippo Challenge 4" x 4" Oil on gessoboard

This painting was a challenge! It wasn't so much because I was limited to two colors, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, but by the little details that I got caught up in. If I did it again I would definitely try to make it more "loose".

The thing I liked the best about doing this painting was the nostalgia I felt. I remember my dear Uncle Bill smoked and he would bring home all kinds of cigarette lighters that he got out of the claw machines. He is now 92 years old.

Roma's Gift Box 4" x 4" Oil on gessoboard

Before I got started with the painting, I took a black and white photo of the set up just to get a handle on the values. So important. I could see that the difference between the light side of the box and the shadow side was at least two value scales apart. That is in general. As the light hit the box from the shadow side of the table the value came a little closer to the value of the lighted side. Light against dark, dark against light. A constant comparison with background and foreground and the box. It took much longer than I thought.  I am pleased with the results however I do wish I could loosen my strokes a bit to get that painterly look. I will work on doing that in my next set up.

What a corker! 4" x 4" oil on gessoboard

I love the movie Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. It has been a while since I have watched it but I remember a line in there where Tom calls Nicole a corker. I think it was a compliment- maybe.

The greatest challenge I seem to have is setting up the still life. Last night I rummaged through all my old bottles that I collected over the years. I love saving bottles. My family thinks I go a little overboard with that. Anyway I do have some great potentials for future paintings but for this one I settled on the same bottle that I did for the 10-minute challenge. I think it is an old beer bottle. Real cute as beer bottles go. Anyway, ok I had an amber bottle and a yellow flower and a cork in the same family of colors. I went again for the complement of the color to use for the background. So the complement of yellow orange is blue violet. A few color marks on the canvas  to test it and wow I felt I made a good decision.

The Promised Red Rose 4"x4" Oil on Gessoboard

I love flowers but it is definitely a love-hate relationship when it comes to painting them- especially roses.

I chose a gray green backdrop to complement the red rose. This gray green color I painted in first so that I could see the relationship of the colors I would choose for the reds in the rose. The biggest challenge was trying to keep it simple. My still life rose had a lot more petals and that was becoming way too complicated so I simplified instead by eliminating some petals and also by using blocks of color shapes especially for the center of the rose.

The colors on the painting are a bit richer than this photo shows. I continue to have problems with getting the photo colors correct  in order to post.

Hurry! Hide!! 4" x 4" oil on gessoboard

These cherries reminded me of active kids playing hide and seek. The one on top is trying to hide in the bottle but can't fit and the other two are hidding behind tranparent glass.

Greetings

My name is Charlene Swift. For many years I have been indulging my artistic impulses through various mediums such as watercolor, acrylic, pastels, and oils.  This blog will be a record of my endeavor to track the progress of my current work as I complete them. My past work has mostly been comprised of equine art and landscapes using my photos and field sketches as inspiration and springboards for my paintings.
My goal is to set up still lifes in my studio in order to help me train my eye to see subtle colors and reflections that are sometimes impossible for me to photograph. I will be working in my favorite medium, oils, on small canvases or gessoboards, usually 4"x4" sizes. This size will allow me to finish a painting in one to two sittings which works perfectly with my busy life schedule.

Bottle and Grapes 4" x 4" oil on gessoboard

Today I finished my painting. I layed in the pure colors first, then the darks. After getting started, I had second thoughts about laying in the darks before I did the background because I was getting some mud. However working back and forth from background to grapes and grapes to background seemed to work out alright afterall. ( I did have my rag handy for a total wipe out ) By working back and forth, it helped me lose the edges to give a softer recessed look. I think I will paint this bottle again. What to put with it next time? Hmm.

Bottle and Grapes

After yesterday's challenge of painting the beer bottle, I decided today that I would try another amber bottle. (Don't ask where I got the bottle- really I don't remember). I only had time to do the lay in which will definitely save me time later. I had watched  a video on U-Tube by Qiang Huang which was really good. It was perfect for reminding me how simple the lay in should be- Lines, lights, mediums and darks. Always good to have a clear idea of that. The shadow against the backdrop had some nice gold reflections. Now that I am looking at the bottle, it may need some straightening out but that will come later.

The Beer Bottle

Today I entered the 10-minute Painting Challenge by Carol Marine. Eight paintings, each one done in only 10 minutes. A timer was set for each one. Ten minutes goes by fast when you are laying in the drawing, mixing colors and applying. But Carol was right. I did learn a lot and each beer bottle seemed to be looking better and better as I got to the eighth one. After the first two paintings,  I realized that I needed to stay away from the cads, at least at first when laying in the initial colors of the bottle. Keeping the colors clear added to the effect of transparency. Later, for light reflections, I added a small amount of white or a cad color to a transparent color like alizarin crimson. What a challenge but lots of fun. By the time I got to the eighth bottle, I was ready for something to drink!