Little Diversions...

For the past few months I've been working on two large (at least for me) paintings. One is a 24 x 24 the other a 20 x 28. They were both rather complicated set ups and at various stages in the process, barely escaped being chucked in the trash. Working through the rough spots, however, I learned much and actually ended up being happy with the duo.  

Still, it was a tough go. So once they were  finished and out of my studio,  I decided  a little diversion was in order and immediately set up two small still lifes.  

For the first, Splendor in the Glass, I channeled one of my favorite artists, Henri Fantin Latour,  and purposely painted the setup without a table front, softened the edges where the background meets the table (a Latour trademark) and did my take on his subdued backdrop. With a book of his work  close to my easel,  between breaks it lifted my spirits and inspired my  effort Having started (but never finished) the second  painting sometime ago, still on a high from painting Splendor in the Glass,  I decided to give it another go. 

Whenever you rework flowers, it's easy to lose that spontaneous freshness. In an attempt to avoid that, and since the drawing  had good bones,  I decided to use my previous effort as a base and approached Sweet Sunshine with an alla prima mindset, painting extempore on top of the original and working wet into wet toward the finish. 

Thanks to these two little diversions,  I am back in my element ready to take on another biggie. Commission anyone?

The New Republic

Oil on linen canvas 24" x24"

I teach painting classes once a week in my Fort Lee studio. One of my students brought in this beautiful angel candelabra.  A few treasures from the prop stash: rich Damask fabric; candles; a feather quill and small ink well; well-read book and souvenir box easily fell into place. Not so easy was the task of painting that elusive cherub.

Challenged to get the relief decoration to "read" as three dimensional, I kept wiping it out and reworking to a point of frustration. What finally helped in the end, was a happy discovery that  hints of silvery grey (north light effect) placed on top of bright yellow highlights (the presumed color choice for brass) gave the impression of a raised protrusion. What a relief!