Oil study #67

Ok, maybe I was too ambitious today: a glass with refractions...
I also tried a new surface called Haircell pochade panel (Made in Canada :-). I haven't made up my mind on that. But I have 9 more panels to try.

Oil on panel, 6 x 8

Oil study #66: Reflected Lemons

I like the light and the sense of depth in this one.

Oil on canvas panel, 8 x 10"

Oil study #64: Orange Wedges

I like this one! I think I was able to convey the transparency and opacity of the orange pieces. I like the reflections as well.

Oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7

Oil study #62

Thank you all for your comments and support. I may not answer them individually but I read and appreciate them.

I like the oranges and the light.
I had a good start today keeping things simple and not retouching. At some point I realized I was faster than usual and from that point I got into trouble. I started to retouch things and made them worse... there were intriguing reflections that I wasn't able to render.

Oil on gesso panel, 5 x 7

Oil study #63

For this one I tried to leave the brush strokes alone (not retouching them) as much as possible. That allowed me to avoid getting into trouble like I did yesterday. I like the looser look.

BTW: The yellow in the shadow of the lemons is not that strong in the actual painting.
I still have to learn a lot about photography as well :-)

Oil on gesso panel, 5 x 7

Oil study #61

My eyes keep going back to the strong edge of the bottle and the background in the back. It needs to be softer. Otherwise I'm happy with this one.

oil on gesso panel, 6 x 8"

Oil study#1

It was a no show today. I felt rusty after two days not painting. So I decided to show you my first ever oil painting. The subject is our sweet dog, Maple.

I painted this one at the end of 2007 as an assignment in a color mixing class. There is no way to learn about mixing color with pastel. So that's how I started with oil. I used burnt sienna and turpentine to do an under painting. I avoided touching what I wanted to leave white, I diluted the paint more for the lighter color (like the background) and used more paint (less turpentine) for the darker spots.

Since it was my first oil painting I wasn't sure how to proceed after that. I tried few things and I decided to leave it alone.

oil on stretched canvas, 8 x10

value exercise #3

Here's another exercise I did last year to get the feel for oil paint.

For each color on my palette I made a grid where I mixed that color with every other color on the palette. Here are the grids for ultramarine and burnt sienna. The first column, 2nd row is the ultramarine/burnt sienna straight out of the tube. The 3rd to 6th rows are different tints (adding white) of that color. The second column is the ultramarine mixed with cadmium yellow light. The top row is the cadmium yellow out of the tube. The second row is the ultramarine mixed with the yellow but keeping the blue dominant. The other rows are different tints of the mixed colors trying to match the value of the first column.

Oil study #59: Red Onion and Bok Choy

Ken brought me some vegetables from the grocery specifically for painting. Yes I know I'm lucky: Ken does the groceries :-0

I like it but I find it plain again. It doesn't look enough like a painting.

I like the shadow color. It's lighter than I often do and it makes it more subtle.

oil on canvas panel, 6 x 8

Award & show

Today, I got "Second in show" at the Annual Juried Show with Austin Pastel Society. I'm pretty happy about that. There were 4 categories: landscape, portrait, wildlife, still life, plus the Best in show category (Best in show, 1st,2nd and 3rd in show).

The juror was Desmond O'Hagan - PSA Master Pastellist. The show (50 paintings) will be displayed until May 3rd at Chase Bank Corridor of Art, 700 Lavaca, Austin, Tx, 78701.

Earlier today I got the following two paintings accepted in the 1st Juried Competition/Exhibition with the Texas Pastel Society in San Antonio.

The juror is Lorenzo Chavez.

The reception is open to the public on April 16th from 7 - 9 pm at Coppini Academy of Fine Arts, upstairs gallery, 115 Melrose Pl., San Antonio, Texas.

The show (49 paintings) will run from April 16th until May 3rd.

Oil study #58: Onions Shedding

How is that? It's going to be harder than I thought to jazz it up...

canvas on canvas panel, 6 x 8

Oil study #57

I like the basket. I kept it simple and didn't fuss with it.

I'm starting to have a better control over the medium (oil paint). Now I'd like to find a way to jazz up my painting (keeping my values in mind)...

Oil study #56

A black and white value study. It's my best attempt at suggesting fabric. I'm starting to have a better feel for the medium, but still have to work hard at seeing my values.

Oil study #55

Another pear... I still struggle with my values. The shadow side was too light at some point. I changed it. Now I think it's too dark. Zut alors!

BTW: some of the lighter brushstrokes are an artifact of light reflection in the photograph, and not a lighter color. Brushstrokes in different directions reflect light differently.

Oil study #54

Although I still have a long way to go at painting better roses, I see an improvement since last time I tried (and I just noticed that both paintings have almost the same color background). I may have gone too far with the blue...

Oil study #53

This one turned out ok. It's a bit dark overall. I was not crazy about the thumbnail, so I should have made changes right there. I had trouble from the start with my values. It's always worse for me to see the values for complement colors. Don't know why that is. Anyone? I had a plexiglass on the surface for additional reflections and I couldn't make them work so I remove them at the last minute.

Oil studies #25, #28, and #29

Here are my 3 favorite pears that I painted in January. The 1st and 3rd ones have a reflection of an "off-view" object, whereas in the 2nd one the reflected object (the wall) is included. I think it makes it more interesting for the viewer to imagine what could reflect instead of seeing it explicitly.

#25


#28


#29

Oil study #52

Another pepper! I like it, although it's a bit plain.

I really had to pay attention to the values on this one. The light on table was the same value as the shadow on the pepper.

Oil study #51

I may have to let this one sit for few days to make up my mind about it. I like it when I squint or if I look at it from far...

Oil study #50

Onions... not that easy. I'll need to try again. I like the rendering of the right onion, but I gave up on the left one. The corner in the background looks funny... The reflection is a bit strong but I kind of like it.

Oil study #49

I like the pepper. I also like the brushstrokes in the fabric hanging in front. They're simple and suggest some texture. On the other hand I had trouble suggesting folds in the background without distracting too much from the pepper. So I removed them. I also forgot to go back and clean up the surface and rework the shadow a little more.