"Original Oil Painting: "Bunapi" (Japanese Mushrooms)"

6 x 8 oil on linen panel.  I found this wonderful Japanese fabric last week and thought it would be a great background for a still life.  After using it in this small study, though, I think it may be confusing as to where the actual objects end and the ground plane begins.  I am doing these small studies in preparation for doing a larger painting with a more complex still life set up.  I wanted to get an idea of which fabrics and colors would work best before I devoted a lot of time to doing a bigger work.   This could work if I included just a portion of the fabric or combined it with another single colored fabric. 

"Original Oil Painting: Papaya and Gauguin"

6 x 8 oil on linen panel.    My interest in Gaugin stems from my series of Caribbean Market Women paintings or maybe vice versa.  I love the tropical colors and interesting compositions of his Tahitian paintings.  Even though his themes are quite different, I find there is a basic common element in his depiction of island life that resonates with my paintings of the Caribbean.  In any case, I haven't been back to Marigot for a while so I have to settle for creating tropical still lifes in the studio.

Original Oil Painting: "Dahlia and Hiroshoge"

6 x 8 oil on linen panel.  I am really having fun exploring the possibilities of the still life genre.  I have always been interested in "Japonisme" and the effect it had on both the European and American painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  This small study shows a  print of one of Hiroshoge's "One Hundred Views of Edo" wooducts.  I particularly like the colors in the Japanese woodblock prints and will probably include them in more still life arrangements.  I'll talk more about Japonisme in a later post because I have a piece of fruit sweating under studio lights at the moment.

Original Pastel Painting: "Boston Roll with Shrimp"

8 x 10 pastel on sanded paper.  I found a fabric store with some really beautiful asian inspired fabrics which has compelled me to try out some more still lifes!  This didn't turn out as loose as I would have liked because I got hung up on the details of the dish.  It was an odd shape and depth and the wasabi/ginger combo really vexed me.  Anyway, I like the overall effect but I hope the bright colors aren't blinding anyone on their computer monitor!

Original Pastel Painting: "Tea and Cookies"

8 x 10 pastel on sanded paper.  The weather has alreaedy jumped to late Autumn here in the Northeast, so I am continuing my still life studies inside for the time being.  I love the color of this deep red tea cup.  I think the pale green fabric plays nicely off the dominant red shape.  I have cropped this image down from the original 9 x 12 because I think the white of the napkin attracted too much attention.  This was probably due to the fact that I had the light source too close to the still life set up.  Lesson learned.  I did try to deepen the color a bit but it is very difficult to go dark over light in pastel.  In any case, I think the crop subjugates the brightness of that area to the larger shape in the composition and makes it work overall.

Original Oil Sketch: "Sunset on Litchfield Hills"

6 x 8 oil on linen. I love the colors in this but unfortunately you can't see them properly here. There are bright orange, red and yellow colors offset with cool green blues which are much more vibrant than the blogger uploader allows. I would like to do this as a large painting but I can already see how tricky it will be. Fall is a beautiful time in the Northeast but the bright foliage can sometimes overwhelm a scene. It is a compositional balancing act. I will probably execute a few more studies before attempting a larger version. I realize my blogging efforts have dwindled down to weekly rather than daily posts. We have been busy traveling and preparing for the sailboat delivery season which is pretty short here in the Northeast. Things should calm down in the next few weeks.

Original Oil Painting: "Gibson Reading Room"

6 x 8 oil on linen. Given how cold it has been the past few days in the Northeast, I had no choice but to do my daily plein air exercises inside! This is a little sun room in my friend's house in New Haven (don't worry Denise -- I had lots of paper down!) I have always been attracted to interiors and "roomscapes". There is a lot of variety in the shapes and lighting sources in different rooms and houses which makes for an infinite number of painting opportunities. In this scene, the outside light was overcast so the strongest light source was the inside lamp. It was tricky trying to decide just how light to go with the outside source. I think I could have gone a bit warmer with the interior light to play off the cool background and further differentiate between the two different sources but I'm leaving it for now.