How subjective is colour? I’ve been busy with client work the last few days so no painting, but last night I finally caught up so thismorning I’m recovering and sitting here thinking about colour. I was just looking out of the window. Its a nice morning, bright and cold with some high cloud. I wasthinking
Cantaloupe Melon
This one was a bit of an experiment, which meant I had to depart from the method a bit. Its great having a set procedure to follow, but I think you need to be flexible with it if the circumstances demand it. This was one of those times. Recently I’ve taken to doing a lot
Three Small Plum Tomatoes
22nd November 2005 This was a quick study, completed in just over an hour. I didn’t have a lot of choice about that since I didn’t start it until 14:00 and the light starts to fade now around 15:30. Last night I was cooking a moussaka with these little plum tomatoes, and since they were
Conker, Orange and Cup
19th November 2005 Sticking with complimentary colours again, orange and blue this time. Two things changed in this painting, the preparation of the composition and the lack of preparation of the canvas. First, the composition: I did much more preparation for this composition than on previous paintings, taking various photos of the arrangement first and
Lemon and Cloth, A Still Life Painting
16th November 2005 Today I get to put up another painting I don’t like. Looking at it now, I suppose there’s some feeling of the light in there, but really, the painting doesn’t live. I’m disappointed. With this painting I took some pictures of the different stages as I went along. I thought it would
Still Life Painting of a Lemon
14th November 2005 This site won’t be much of a record if I don’t put up failures as well as successes. I abandoned this painting after about an hour and a half. What went wrong? After my success with the carrots and squash, I was looking forward to this painting. I’ve got a method together to
Pomegranate and Conker
I remember being quite exited when I’d finished this painting, but looking back at it now two or three weeks later I can’t really see why. The pomegranate bothered me a lot. I couldn’t seem to get the red deep enough, and I kept working in the shadows till it all got muddy and indistinct.
Last of Summer 2005
Oil on Canvas 13″ X 11″ So here it is, my first oil painting in well over 10 years. I like this painting because all the objects have some personal significance.The heather I proposed to Michelle with on the North Yorkshire Moors in August.The wine bottle is Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, brought back after a
Carrots and Squash
9th November 2005 I’m much happier with this one, I think it might turn out to be a milestone. There’s a lot I did different in this painting, and it started with the setting up. I must have spent about an hour or so putting the arrangement together and enclosing it on both sides, so
Old Green Bottle
3rd November 2005 This is a small green bottle which Michelle bought last time we went up north to see the family. We got it with a couple of others from a little shop in Whitby. I’d had enough of shopping and couldn’t be bothered looking at them, now I’m painting them so Michelle gets