Just Some Garlic

Today's mini-study was this 5x7 oil painting of a clove of garlic resting on aluminum foil. The foil provided some reflection, but getting the color and value of the foil compared to the garlic was quite tricky. I can see that I need to paint some metallic/silver colored items.

The colors on a clove of garlic are very subtle, it's almost like painting an egg or egg shell. I'll be returning to this subject. This one was painted on gesso'd matboard, but with a touch of pumice added to the gesso. This provides a little texture and "grab", so the first paint layer sinks in and doesn't slide around so much. It's nicer to work on, but can be tough on brushes. The key is to add just enough pumice to get the benefits, but no more.

I also spent some time trying to re-work the plein air painting from the other day, but that didn't go to well. Need to do some thinking about what I'm doing wrong.

Just Call Me "Rusty"

Well, since I last posted I have left my job and am now devoting all my efforts to painting. Obviously I have a lot of work to do! It's been 4 months since I've even touched a brush...first because of my back injury (which is better but still doesn't feel right), then because of the backlog of work that accumulated. Took me a few days to get the art room and supplies organized, but now I'm pretty much done with that. Time to put them to use!

On Friday I broke out the gouache and did a couple of "car paintings". Very rusty (I won't show them). Later in the day I dragged out the oil paints and did a couple of very small studies...partly just to get the feel of painting again, partly to try out a new canvas. Those studies won't ever be seen either! However, in the interest of almost full disclosure, I'll post the two I did yesterday. The first is an 8x10 oil painting, painted on site. It was great just being out there on a sunny, mild (35 deg or so) February day, listening to the creek and the birds. As for the painting, well I kinda missed with this one. It looked pretty decent outside in the bright light, but indoors it's rather dull and lacks contrast. I had lots of trouble overlaying tree trunks and branches onto wet paint, ran out of paper towels...as I said, rusty! But I like the scene and think I'm going to re-do the painting in the studio, to figure out where I went wrong. I think that's going to be the biggest benefit to having more time for this - the opportunity to try new things, solve problems, and not always feel rushed.

The second one is a simple study of a radish. It's also oil, 5x7, and painted on gesso'd mat board. This surface is very slippery and now I remember why I stopped painting on it...the first layer of paint slips all over the place and is hard to paint over. I eventually managed to make it work reasonably well. I'm planning to do a lot of these small, simple studies to improve my skills.

I'm also planning to post more often - at least once a week for now; more often when I start doing decent paintings again. Hopefully that won't take too long! Stay tuned as the journey begins...