Peppers are fun to paint. They have such vibrant colors and interesting shapes. When posting images with red varieties of colors, the photography tends to blend them into one color. The difference in reality between the orange pepper and the red pepper is significant. You will have to use your imagination with this one. I like the exercise of doing still life paintings and I like taking a break on occasion from painting people. Even though they are both made up of shapes, lines and values with lovely colors, the pressure of getting people "right" can be daunting. I mean, if I make the pepper a bit lopsided or fat, who would notice?
I tried this for a 3 color challenge for Daily Paintworks. I used blue, yellow and red. It really was a challenge for me and I so wanted to throw in some other colors or even more shades of the three I chose. You could also use white and black and I did use white but not black. I like it better after coming back to it. There is a lot of texture. It is a grouping of barns near where I live A couple of years ago they painted the traditional red barn a deep yellow. Actually it is more of an ochre color but I chose cad. yellow light, so it is a brighter tone than the real barn. I love that you can make up your own world when painting and sincee we can't compete with the real one, we might as well!
Nature plays out her drama in vivid colors in this early fall foliage pageant. I was going to call it "Dressed In Red" but really this is one of those perfectly staged scenes put together by naturally occurring elements plus a few chairs!
I painted this plein air last fall of a hill of sumac bushes but it took me until now to finally paint in the black lines. The coolest thing about painting plein air is that when you go back to look at the paintings you can remember how you felt, how the light hit and how it smelled. I love the look of sumac bushes in every season.
I have been working on larger panels for a while and it was really fun to return to this small 6"x6". I can't seem to get the variety of colors that are in the painting to show up in my photos, which is a little frustrating for me. This was a fun painting to do and it reminded me of some of the things I really like doing when I am painting.
The way the sky peaks through the tall trees is what drew me to this composition. It just seemed so lovely and simple, but not simple to paint. It was actually pretty complicated and took some effort to eliminate confusing shapes and colors. I wanted a feeling of late summer coolness and I think I have accomplished it. It is just a little shed in a grove of tall trees. A nice place to feel alive!
I am back from traveling and ready to paint! This is a demo for a beginners class at the Chaffee Art Center. Everyone had a good time and some really nice paintings came out of it. I focused on creating the design using geometric shapes and how to create varying brushwork. When I do these demos I don't feel like I am painting subject matter that is most exciting to me, rather I try and choose a few things that offer teachable moments and subjects that are interesting and simple enough to not be intimidating. I am still refining how I do this; the learning curve for me seems to be infinite! On another note, I went to Washington, D.C., a city of abundant free museums and excellent artwork!
This is a painting I did in planning for the class I am teaching June 12 at the Chaffee Art Center. I went pretty abstract with the front lower and right sides, with the suggestion of foliage. I planned it out mathematically first which was different and fun. Click here for the demo slideshow.
