Thursday, December 1, 2016

How I Develop a Painting

I spent the evening thinking about what I'd like to paint.  
The idea came to me in object and color combinations. I was inspired by paintings I've seen in the past in magazines, in museums and those of my favorite contemporary painters. I wanted the challenge of painting several objects on a larger
 20 x 16 horizontal canvas and not my usual 10 x 8.
It took a while, I had to buy the produce and gesso a canvas. 
I put things in and took them out and did a lot of rearranging. 
It actually took a lot of time.


 This was my original layout. It ended up with too many items.
 It was too busy and awkward.

 I liked this layout with the canvas vertical, but in the end, I didn't like the knife in for foreground. It was too heavy and it reminded me of a slasher movie. Although I liked the way it led the viewer into the painting.


I took the knife out. I squared up the image in photoshop to fit a 12 x 12 canvas and the perspective worked. I liked the foreshortening of the leeks. I could see this still life as a finished painting.


I drew it in and started with the hardest object to paint and those were the leeks. I paint from life with smaller paintings and also use a photo reference for larger work. 
The next session I might have to touch up what I've already painted and then go from one object to the next in the painting process.


2 comments:

  1. I love it already and I'll be back to see the progress.
    I liked the knife too, but yes, better without ;)

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    1. Thanks Mary for your comment. As you know, it's a process and you plug along until that little voice tells you it works and that it's complete.:)

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