kcp – Artblog

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