Hello from Sunny Italy

No, I'm not really in Italy but the painting today sure reminds me of Italy.

Looking around for inspiration, I turned to my vast array of photos. I think this photo came from the Marble House in Providence RI rather than Italy and I was there a few more years ago than I care to admit.

The Marble House is an Italian Renaissance Revival mansion built by one of the Vanderbilts so its no surprise that it reminds me of Italy.

I think I'm getting into a sort of routine with these paintings. First I mix up the colors - a couple of choices for the lights, midtones, and darks and then block them in with a brush. So no drawing ahead of time, even with the fine brush. Then I go back and add some color variations. This effort took about 40 minutes.

It was a fun exercise just to concentrate on color and I think I'm getting more confident with my brush strokes. I wanted to compare the colors on the dark inside columns with the brightness of the red floor. The colors are similar in color temperature but not quite.

I didn't get to put in the reflected light in the upper arches apses. But I wanted to keep it fresh a nod not overworked. I may revisit this subject again. Have to leave something for next time.

view to the sea from the portico at the Marble House in Providence

They say a bold failure is better than a timid semi-success.

I went at it again with eggs last night - or an egg and my bold blocking in the shapes rendered the poor egg rather football-like. I wanted to go decisive on the colors and not fiddle around with them too much. With that aspect of the painting, I am particularly pleased.

I'm now even more than ever seeing the advantage of quick paintings.

New painting class and the dentist

Ah, here's what the dentist and a new 2 day painting class have done to me. It's totally wiped me out so I haven't had anything to post here.

The class though is run by Joseph Peller, he's an amazing artist and teacher. Next week I'll take some pictures of my WIP and share with you all.

Here's today's modest effort to get me back on track. I will never be able to think of eggs without thinking of Gollum getting the eggs riddle and yelling out 'Eggsses!' Well these are eggsses.

A slight change up - Painting everyday rather than a painting a day

I've had to rethink this. I'm getting into the subtleties of color in still life and its an area I'm rather new to.

This painting is actually the third rendition of this teacup. The first one - a 25 minute exercise was too saturated. Yesterday I experimented mixing colors. I changed my paints around and abandoned temporarily the limited primary palette. Using a variety of Williamsburg paints in a variety of earth colors, I did a quick brush sketch of just the cup against a dark background.

Today I went for the full painting which took about 50 minutes. So far, I'm pleased with how things are going. I'm still keeping the spirit of the quick paintings - not sitting down more than 25 minutes at a time and not doing more than 2 sessions for each painting. This may mean some days I don't have a post-worthy painting but when I do get one, it makes it all worthwhile.

Another Cityscape

For today, I decided to do another version of yesterday's painting, this time with more color.

Cityscape

Today I decided to try some more muted tones and found this photo of a village scene in Austria.

Exploring the red spectrum

Well I think I'll have to re adjust my goal to paint 5 days out of 7 rather than all 7. Right now I'm still enjoying trying to capture the shadows and reflected light off of the many red objects I've found in my kitchen. Who knew I was such a 'red' person?

I'm also going to give myself an hour on these. For this last one, I wanted to correct the reflections after 30 minutes and ran out of time.

I think this whole process is a work in progress.

Coppers and reds

Yes, I missed a day. Yesterday was just impossible to get any painting done.

So today I made up for it with this study of a copper pot ready to cook an Italian meal. I actually broke my own rules and spent two hours on it. It was good to take my time mixing colors. Over time, I'm sure I'll do it faster but for now as long as I keep painting every day (or most every day), I'll be happy.

7"x10" oil on board - 2 hours

PS the photo looks a little fuzzy. I'll take another one while the sun is out tomorrow.