kcp – Artblog

I picked the corner of an empty room, which seriously needs to be repainted to set-up this still life. The large window provides plenty of indirect daylight and the room’s corner is casting a shadow that is just perfect for the kind of ambiance I wish to depict. That neglected, ugly wall also helps to simulate the effect I hope for – I want this painting to breathe, to occupy a lot of space and I want observers to feel that space when they’ll look at the painting.
In my quest for space, the mango is sitting very near the front edge of the table with the teapot right behind it. The matching sugar pot was placed in the back, touching the cream pot, which is sitting at the obscured far edge of the table. The silver spoon and sugar jar holder is as far back but on the opposite side.

Why two sugar pots you might ask? I know it doesn’t make sense but it’s purely for balance and aesthetic reasons; Visually, the silver spoon/sugar jar holder is used to balance the composition and add variety in colours and texture, yet without taking away the attention from the main subject. I took several photos at different time of the day and select the photo that reflects the most the desired ambiance. In this case, the canvas will be twice as long as it is high, so it’ll look something like this:

I know that it isn’t ideal to work directly from photos since we have the tendency to want to reproduce exactly what’s on the photo but given my lack (read: none) of studio space and given that I always use real fruits for my still lives (okay, except for grapes because they are very expensive nowadays. I have a set of very realistic looking plastic green and red grapes that I must always hide or people keep trying to eat them!) it is best to take photos or else they’ll be drosophila (fruit flies) all over the place in no time. To take away the guilt of working from a photo instead of directly from the model (and so folks can’t say that I’m not a real artist) I’ve taken the time to make a quick sketch and colour study right there on the spot ;)

Then using Photoshop I made a print of a 5” x 10” greyscale version with a 1 x 1 inches square grid to later help reproduce the drawing accurately on two large newspaper stuck together, where I drafted a 15” x 30” rectangle with a 3 x 3 inches square grid. The colour version of the photo will only be needed later, either printed or just displayed on my computer screen to take a peek at during painting sessions.

 The making of a Still Life:

• Introduction
• The set-up
• Ground colour
• The sketch
•  Painting begins

While I’m continuing to work on the Philadelphus flowers painting, I’ve got this new Still Life project that I’m starting to prepare for. This is the first of a series of blog articles that will follow the developments of this new painting, covering the set-up, applying ground colour to the canvas, tips on sketching/drawings and more. But first, an introduction to this new artwork is in order:

On a 15” high by 30” wide canvas this Still life will feature an English ironstone (or semi-porcelain) cream-white teapot with matching cream and sugar pot, a mango which its colour beautifully matches those of the Old Country Roses ornamentation pattern on the teapot and some silverware spoon and sugar jar holder in the far back.

Although not bone china porcelain(1), this is still a pretty teapot that I’ve long wanted to make a painting of. All that was missing was a fruit to accompany it.  An apple was my initial idea but I wasn’t too convinced; it seemed too common and boring – When I saw that mangoes were on sale at the grocery store, I immediately knew that was the missing fruit to complete my composition.
(1)–For those whom may inquire: despite the teapot’s Old Country Roses floral design, this is not Royal Albert bone china but Staffordshire ironstone and the manufacturer is H. Aynsley & Co Ltd.

There are many challenges and a variety of textures that makes this composition interesting; there is glass, silver, the shadows and wrinkles on the tablecloth, the porous texture of the mango and its red colour that melts into green, and of course the ceramic with its floral pattern and gold rim.

The making of a Still Life:

• Introduction
• The set-up
• Ground colour 
• The sketch
•  Painting begins  

There’s a French nursery rhyme that goes: “La peinture à l’huile c’est bien difficile, mais c’est bien plus beau que la peinture à l’eau.” – This translates to: Oil painting is very difficult, but it is much prettier than water paint – In which case “water paint” could be interpreted as watercolours or again, water soluble paint, like acrylic.

I don’t know how much this nursery rhyme has contributed to the belief that oil painting is hard but there sure seem to be a lot of people that think so – I met countless of acrylic painters that say that they can’t do oils to save their lives – Well if you are one of those folks, it might interest you to know that I can’t paint in acrylic to save my life –I bet you didn’t suspect me to say that but there, I said it.

So is oil more difficult than acrylic, really? I think it is more a matter of personality. I find that acrylic dries too fast – Yes I know, there’s some medium you can mix with acrylic paint to slow down its drying process but that still dries too fast for my tastes – You see, I like to play with the paint, mix the colours on the canvas. I’m quite an Introvert type of person, my best virtues are patience and persistence, and according to some cognitive tests I undergone a couple years ago, it does indeed seem that my brain is strongly wired to “favour precision over rapidity of execution”.

I used to think that people that don’t have the patience to sit still and do only one thing for several hours non stop until it’s completed, don’t have what it takes to do a decent painting or drawing – But that has changed when I met Guy, the painting teacher at one of the community centre where I teach drawing classes. Guy is an Extrovert, very out going, generous and expressive person – Guy teaches both acrylic and oils but says he prefers acrylics because he doesn’t like waiting 3 or 4 days for the paint to dry. He says: “Things have got to get going with me, continuously.”

He also told me that sometimes his oil students are making him impatient because they spend a long time painting their sky, chitchatting with each other, then get up, grab a cup of coffee, chitchat some more, then get back into class and continue working slowly on their skies – Guy said: “That takes forever and ever, my gosh it’s driving me crazy!” – That made me chuckle – I realized that his oil students must alienate him just as much as those of my students that hurry to complete their drawings alienate me.

Which medium is better suited for you? If you like to work slowly, focussing on one thing at a time, if you like to experiment, play with colours on the canvas and don’t mind waiting a long time before seeing some results, oil may just be the perfect medium for you – On the other hand, action going, multi tasking, spontaneous types will very much prefer acrylics – This said however, it doesn’t solve the problem of beginner painters who have not yet gained the experience and confidence in their skill to work fast – Because acrylic paint dries fast, beginners might find it disabling. So please, do yourself a favour and give oils a chance.

My white Philadelphus flower painting is coming along nicely. Here’s a picture of it taken on April 2^nd.

I’m still working on the bottom petals, working my way to the top but on my next painting session, I’m going to re-work the green foliage in the middle part because a lot of the greens over there are not what they should be – I’m also going to re-work the top left corner which, I don’t like. When I first started doing the foliage, I started at the top working my way down. By the time I got to the bottom of the painting, I understood the trick, which is don’t paint the leaves, paint the negative spaces around the leaves! – It is much easier that way and I found the same works for the petals, too – Otherwise you just wind-up with something that looks like it was cut-out and pasted on top, like a collage and completely ruining the depiction of depth.

I’m still trying to figure-out a name for it – I’m hesitating between “Fleurs de Philadelphus’ (Philadelphus flowers) or simply “Fleurs blanches” (White Flowers) – If any of you feel like giving your opinion or maybe have another suggestion, feel free to leave a comment.