Still life

14/09/2013   

  I think I've nearly finished this still life. My plan is to leave it for a few weeks, do a few others before returning to see if I can improve it at all. This piece as taught be so much about mark making, compostion and light. I need to do a lot more still lives and see where they take me- play with narrative and work on creating real textures that make the viewer want to reach out and touch it. 

   A major thing which helped was when I looked at other pieces done by much more experienced and skilled artists- in particular Van Gough:

 

  One thing I notice in particular was that his backgrounds held the colours of the still life and were at times louder. The parkmaking on the background is more evident and designed to draw the eye into the centre. I love, in particular, the old boots since I hike and they make me thing of adventure and travelled paths- this alone should tell me what my next still life should focus on. My still lifes, while been a great exercise, are focused on very unoriginal subject matter. I need to try to shove narration into them as well. 

  I also studied a range of pieces by Cezanne:

                                                                                                                                             

  The background in all of these are as prominent as the foregrounds. I think one of my mistakes was to ignore the background and attempt to block it out as unimportant. I also want to include a lot of material in the next few pieces, its a wonderful test of skill and can direct the eye to the composition wonderfully.  

25/07/2013

  I've just spent the weekend at Buxton Great Dome Arts Fair and learned a lot from the people I've met. I'd like to do several things in the next few weeks to make my art more sell-able and improve my technique in the process. I've always loved still lives and I suspect they would sell. Here is my first attempt, half way through:

  I worked completely form life but used a grid system and a photograph reference to insure the scale is correct. Then I worked into it over the following day:

   The forms still need a lot more shape and, something which will help my art as a whole, I need to learn how to create the impression of texture. I'll update this page as I progress, should be able to do a lot more tomorrow.

Saturday 26th July

 Better texture but I'm still struggling with the potatoes and the painting as a whole is still lacking depth. I want it to grab the viewer and make them yearn to pick up the items. I think a few more sittings and a few glazes and it'll be there.