Red: The Sequel

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40 Available here

I had so much fun with my first 'Red' painting I did another! This one might be even more vivid- the pops of green help. I was excited to paint all of these elements; the blood orange, which I'd never tried before, was great fun. The deep, mottled colour is so striking! The kiwi is a rematch - I'd tried painting one before and it came out terribly, but I think I've conquered it this time! Chilli peppers are always fun to paint, though I tend to handle them very gingerly. I am not a fan of spicy things personally! I just love the shape and colour. And cherry tomatoes, my old friends, I'll never desert you...

As with the previous works, this artwork is still a little wet at time of posting (11th April) and may need additional time to dry before being shipped.

Limited Colour: Red

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40. Available here

How about this for a splash of colour! Red is one of my favourites, but I don't actually use it lots in painting - mostly in little accents here and there. So I was a bit uncertain about how a big swathe of it would work out... But I love it! It's so powerful and bold; the small size of the canvas board stops it from being too completely overwhelming, I think. I was planning to add small touch of a contrasting colour, but once I'd settled on the arrangement, I actually felt it would look better without.Please note that at the time of posting (6th April) this painting is still wet; I would not be comfortable shipping it for a week or two, until I'm happy it's completely dry. However I'm putting it up early so I can submit it to the Weekly Challenge page.

Autumn in High-Key

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. On sale- $22! Available here

Following on from the last painting I posted, here's the high-key study! I really struggled with the leaves while painting this, they seemed to be changing position. I realised as I was deconstructing the arrangement they'd been curling up as I painted... no wonder I was confused!

Autumn in Low-Key

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. On sale- $22! Available here

After reading a new book on painting, I decided that I need to dedicate some time to studying tonal keys. I tend to paint tone exactly as I see it, and have never really 'taken control' of it; learning to tweak values to create a particular mood will really help me to progress to a new level.

I decided to do two studies of an arrangement, one low key and the other high, to see if I understood the concept properly. Here's the low key, with dominant darks. I love the dramatic feeling this has, the way that the light shines off the leaves, and the dark background accentuating the rich, saturated colour.

October Orange

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. On sale- $22! Available here

If there's one colour I associate with autumn, it's that rich orange of pumpkins and leaves... I'm having great fun painting with it! Here's a little arrangement I put together as an exercise in low-key painting; I love the way the dark background really accentuates the vibrant colours.

Summer Colours Still Life

Forgot to post this one!

7x10" acrylic on paper, $50. Available here

Summer is well and truly here and I'm enjoying all the bright colours- so here's a vibrant still life! I had a lot of fun with this one, painting in each element and watching it all come together.

Popular Pear

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

Pears like this one are a real challenge- trying to capture the mottled colours without affecting the way the shading reads can be pretty tough.

Green Pepper

 4x5" acrylic on canvas. $30. Available here

I'm feeling pretty tired, so I'll save my announcement for another day- here's a slightly older still life I never uploaded. I really enjoy painting peppers when they've been cut open. They form such interesting shapes and shadows.

Primary Palette

4x5" acrylic on canvas board. $30. Available here

Here's another little still life in acrylics. The highlights on the cherry tomatoes came out well here, I think.

Colourful Crowd

4x5" acrylic on canvas board. $30. Available here

I really love the way light bounces back off brightly coloured objects to create colourful shadows. I'm really enjoying these bright, vibrant arrangements at the moment.

Scattered

4x5" acrylic on canvas board. $30. Available here

A return to my faithful old friends, mange tout and cherry tomatoes.

The Yellow Card Scenario

6x6" acrylic on canvas board. $20. Available here

Sometimes I really struggle to title these little still life paintings, and I end up coming up with weird stories in my hunt for the perfect phrase. Here, the tomato referee is issuing the blue vase with a yellow card for tripping a sugar snap in the penalty area.

...Well, it's that or 'Vase and sugar snaps and tomato, like, for the fifth time this month.'

 

 

Shopping Day

6x6” oil on canvas board. SOLD

Here's an older still life that I forgot to post here. I went out on a 'charity shop crawl' looking for bits and pieces to paint, and picked up some nice little vases, saucers and bits of glassware. But I was most fond of this tiny copper jug. The green item is glass, I am not sure what it is for, but it casts nice shadows across the surface when the light shines through it.

Green, White and Red

6x6 inches, acrylic on canvas board. $20 - £13.49 - €18.33 – C$ 27.76
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A still life with the usual suspects- a glass, mange tout and cherry tomatoes. I just wanted to try this colour scheme, I haven’t used it in a while!

Glass and Colourful Salad

Acrylic on Canvas Board. $45

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Here's a colourful, healthy-looking still life. It's been a while since I painted this glass! I forgot how much of a pain ellipses are to get right. I like the deep purples in its base, though, and the vibrancy of the yellows in the lemon.

Reflections in a Purple Vase

6x6 inches, oil on canvas board. $20 - £13.49 - €18.33 – C$ 27.76

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I'm still waiting for my latest batch of landscapes to dry, so here's a still life instead. I recently bought this purple vase in a charity shop. I liked the way it reflected everything around it, but distorted the perspective, so I decided to surround it with bright colours and paint the arrangement to challenge myself. Part way through, with about ten different elements to work on, it didn't seem such a good idea- but I finished it, and amazingly enough it worked out in the end!

Broccoli

6x6 inches, oil on canvas board.   SOLD

Here's a study I did of some broccoli in an interesting little... bowl-saucer type thing. And of course I added in my old friends, cherry tomatoes, because the spots of red really help to accentuate the strong greens.

Pak Choi II

 6x6 inches, oil on canvas board. SOLD

Here's another of my Pak Choi paintings. I really enjoyed mixing the range of colours in this one, and the wide tonal range.

Pak Choi I

6x6 inches, oil on canvas board.

SOLD

While getting a drink from the fridge, I discovered a bag of Pak Choi and just knew I had to do some paintings with them. Here's the first of the paintings. I don't use pure white in my paintings a lot, so I thought I would give it a try here; I quite like how it complements the relative simplicity of the arrangement when paired with the soft grey in the background.

Glass, Surrounded

6x6 inches, oil on canvas board. $20.   Place a Bid

The cherry tomatoes are confronting an interloper. I've been playing with using very dark darks in the background to make the highlights pop. It works quite well with glass and reflective surfaces, I think.