Strawberry

Strawberry

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     The primary colors: red, yellow, blue. Complementary colors: red/green. Strawberry, a simple shape. Lots of fun to be had here. Now what do I do about those little seeds all over it?! 

     I considered leaving them out, but I knew I had to include them. If I painted them just as they really are, the painting would be a portrait of strawberry seeds, so I tried to simply suggest a few and ignore the rest. I just felt that you cannot have a picture of a strawberry without those seeds anymore than you can have a picture of a cat without whiskers.

A Cherry

A Cherry

8x8"

$128

DPW $96

     Cherries have been delicious this summer but will be out of season soon, so I thought I better get some paintings done right now.

     You think of them as deep, deep red, but they have many colors. Look closely and you will see. You can stay just on one end of your palette and have a lot of fun. Another part that I enjoy is the stem. It will surprise you too with all the colors in that little skinny stem.

     Nature provides delights great and small. A cherry can be as rich in expression as an expansive landscape or a big fat floral.

     

The Complementary Challenge

Tipsy Bartlett

8x24"

Oil

$100

DPW $90

     Complementary colors, an idea we learn in elementary school and a lesson well worth learning. This week we must paint with complementaries and I chose orange and blue. Be careful. If they mix, you get neutral, but sometimes that is exactly what you want.

     I liked this Challenge, but my big fun was not in the color. It was in the format. Not so long ago I thought the square canvas was a little oddball. Then I began to love it. Now I am using extreme rectangle. A little oddball. I think I might love it too although it will demand more of me than the square. Even so, I am eager to try again.

Small Scene of Nature

Orchard Bunch

18x24"

$775

DPW $545

     Many of my recent paintings have been small, as "Daily Paintings," so my collection has become out of balance. To even that out I decided to try for a size I used to like very much, 18x24.

     Now I do not know if it is the size, the subject, the color, or what, but I slaved over this. I was willing to wash it down, but since I worked so hard on it, I can no longer tell if it is really OK or not, and so I decided to let it live.

     This is probably a good decision because I had a specific idea for this painting and it would not cooperate with me. It kept taking over. If it is that way about it, it deserves a chance. Picasso said, "Begin with an idea, but it must be vague."

Some Shastas

Some Shastas

12x16"

Oil

$384

DPW $269

     Flowers. I am starting to feel more comfortable with them. But, as always, there is an issue to deal with. Here, it is white. How to paint white without it looking like a polar bear in a snow storm.

     I used viridian as my main color and just treated it as a value painting, adding the smaller percentage of warm for the daisy centers. I put a lot of viridian in the flowers and they still look white, but I believe I could have put even more for a richer effect and still ended up with white Shasta Daisies.