"Gaynford Close?" he asked. I shook my head, and mumbled another, "No."
He looked puzzled and stared at the piece of paper in his hand for a while. "Do you know where it is?"
I shook my head .... well, you get the picture.
After he'd gone, I figured it would just be lazy to go back to bed, so I decided I'd go to the Art Club. Last week was the start of the new Wednesday Still Life Group and, although I'd put my name down as an interested party, I couldn't go. Today I would show my support.
As it turned out, I was the Wednesday Still Life Group this week. No one else turned up, so the studio was all mine. I made some coffee, turned on the radio which would generally get a shout of "Put that bloody thing off!" and thought about what I might want to paint in the still life vein.
It's about ten years since I last sat down in front of an object and tried to paint it in one go. I found an old shell, a tea towel and a small table, and off I went. The paint soon got pretty worked up and I had to resort to the palette knife and dollops of Spectragel, but in the end I felt that one and a half hours had been well spent. I think I'll do it again.
Shell (oil on board, 5 x 5 ins)
Posts
4 comments:
hum, you picked an easy object to paint right off the bat, NOT! lol! I haven't done this for ages, and it is a really good exercise. Do you find it really forces you to look at the shadows and colours?
It does exactly that! I do feel I can benefit from more of this, but maybe not another shell next time :)
Instructive to see how you have handled this. I find it incredibly difficult to paint the actual coloured form of an object and to handle the tonal work with a very limited palette like this. How clever that a white cloth can off a white shell which is so chunky and present.
I had not noticed before that a shell of this type has much in common with the shape of a human heart
This particular shell is aided in its heartsmanship by having had the pointy bit at the end broken off.
Post a Comment