Green Apple on Yellow Plate

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It's been two weeks since I last posted a painting. I've been visiting family and then I took this weekend to get back to my daily routine at home. While away, I reread the chapter on color and light in Richard Schmid's book Alla Prima. This kept me thinking about painting, which is second best to doing it. I painted this simple still life without any expectations, just trying to paint what I saw.

Etruscan Wooden Egg

A couple of years ago my mother gave me two wooden eggs and asked me to paint them.

It was remiss of me in that it has taken me so long to decide on what to do. Yesterday I painted them gold. Her condo is in the neoclassical style so I thought the designs of Etruscan pottery might fit.

I took my inspiration from a google search of Etruscan  designs.

Here are the front and back of one egg.

They are so small, only three inches tall. I hope she likes this one. The next can be of two scantly clad ancient warriors fighting.  You don't know my mother. :)

Orange Pepper Reflected

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I would have loved to finish this painting in one day but it took me several. And the only reason I'm mentioning this is that I really like working wet-on-wet otherwise my brush drags. Perhaps I should buy some medium just in case. That being said, the painting reminds me of medieval-style cloth and paintings. I never thought that way when I started, isn't it funny how paintings take on a life of their own?

Athena on the Carpet

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 This is my last painting of Athena for a while. One eye is looking up at me and the other is telling me she's going to sleep.  Dogs are so expressive and can relay so much emotion. This is what I see, what do you think she's thinking?

Athena on the Road

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I'm fortunate to have taken lots of images of Athena while she was in my care. Here we're walking in the afternoon. She was very obliging to my "Oh, I see the sun, let's go out" statements.

Athena for the Weekend

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Athena was our house guest this weekend and was as sweet as usual. She's getting older and spends a lot of her time sleeping. So she let me work on this drawing most of the day. Lately, I've been practicing my drawing and I'd like this to be a study for a future painting. 

By the way, I was selected one of 12 judge's pick for DPW's monthly contest. I'm happy.

Yellow Flowers

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These were two yellow flowers from a bouquet of mixed flowers I received recently. They were the largest, most sculptural of the flowers and had great center shadows.

What to Paint?

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I think my previous DPW's challenge and recent larger painting took some energy out of me. I sat in my studio and couldn't think of anything to paint. I thought, don't paint something complicated but go simple. I placed an orange on my brush cleaner container and smiled.