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| making final touches |
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| The Moleskine; casein tempera on panel; 12" x 9" |
This painting was done on a larger sized panel which doesn't fit in my scanner. Up to this point, all of my pieces have been scann-able and it's been great to pop my just-finished paintings into the scanner and put them up here, on Facebook and on Instagram. With this larger size, however, I have to wait for my partner to take the time to photograph a well-balanced-high-resolution image of my paintings. My little Canon ELPH is okay for shots like the one above - of my easel set-up. However, getting a submit-able photo for my records requires either scanning or a good camera with someone who knows how to use it.
These are artificial tulips and the stems all connect on the bottom and don't spread. I needed a reference to go by for my finished painting so I plopped a bunch of little black brushes in a round glass bowl. That's what you see on the table next to the vase of tulips.
Painting artificial flowers is going to take some getting used to. It felt odd and . . . well . . . artificial somehow. There's nothing like the real thing. Is it still 'painting from life' if you use silk flowers?
4 comments:
I like painting flowers from life if I can but I'm a very slow painter so sometimes it's just not practical. The silk flowers are the next best thing as some are so realistic these days. Still painting from life with silk flowers is not an oxymoron - you're still painting from life, aren't you? To me, if you want to get picky, setting up a still life is sort of artificial, isn't it?
I'm happy that you painted tulips and that the colors are so clean and bright and cheerful. Certainly makes winter more bearable!
As an aside, I had a dream about you last night - do you have 4 grandchildren and a grand dog? lol
Love your comment about all still lifes being inherently contrived - that makes a lot of sense.
I'm at it again today with the larger size and the same tablecloth and vase of tulips. I've added a basket of fruit and pulled back a bit so I'm not right on top of things. "Mattise-like" was a comment I kept hearing on Facebook. He would paint impressionistically, loosely, overhead still lifes, with bright colors and simply - so I understand the association. He was a bit looser with his realism than I am. What happened here is the set-up and viewing angle itself were Mattise-like. I'm going on and on - just kind of thinking through the keyboard here :/
Thank you for your comment, Jan. Oh - and yes - I do have 4 grandchildren but it's a grand-kitty not a grand-dog :)
I would say it definitely counts as painting from life. It's a lovely painting btw.
Thank you, Maria - for your kind comment and for stopping by!
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