Wednesday, May 28, 2014

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Shaker

I started getting a bit more ambitious with the glass...



We're Gonna Need a Bigger Shaker. Original oil on panel, 6" x 6".
Some paintings want to be painted. While I wouldn't exactly say this one painted itself, it did come together in a less-than-painful manner. I have to admit I am suppressing a squee of delight right now. The hang of this thing might just be gotten. And a look could even be emerging. Big project… soon...

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Friday, May 23, 2014

Strainer, Grapefruit, Glass

Another practice piece. I find it fun to see how these evolve.



Strainer, Grapefruit, Glass. Original oil on panel, 6" x 6".
The purple and blue glasses were too much fun to put away. I wanted to work on simplifying them more, and I really like how the colors came out. This time I added a fantastic antique strainer I found at one of the Hillyard shops. The marbled handle looks like horn or tortoiseshell, but is made of Bakelite. Not that you can tell from half an inch of it, but I will tackle it again in the future. I expected the springy bit to be horrible to paint, but it was the easiest part of the whole thing.

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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Lemon Jigger

Here's another throwback post from my Everyday blog:


Sold.

This is one of the pieces I was really happy about. I went on another massive prop shop, this time filling in with some new items. After several sessions painting lightly-tinted, faceted glass, this smooth, deep aubergine glass was a ton of fun! The jigger was an interesting challenge, but I like the look. I was especially happy to finally have dared paint the antique serving tray I found at the Velveteen Rabbit Antiques. I loved the warm tarnished highlights and the deeply tinted reflections.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Pink Martini, Wrong Glass: The Beginning

This new blog is a spinoff from another blog, where I posted daily paintings of many different subjects. Mixology took over a while ago, finally reaching the point where it needed its own blog. By way of catching up, here is the very first Mixology post to my other blog:



(Original oil on panel, 6" x 6".)

For a few years now, an idea has rattled around in the back of my head. 

Being immersed in a large and specific body of work, I just let it lie. But the idea got more persistent, and the big body of work less so, until it seemed time to act.

I'll get into details later, but the gist of the thing centers around still life and cocktails. As the idea evolved, pastel paintings became oil paintings, and a simple show of small works became a more elaborate and ambitious project.

Painting in oil, from life, is something I haven't attempted since college days. To help with this gear change, I took a workshop with still life painter Carol Marine. Then, after months of painting for spring art festivals, avoiding my studio during street construction, and probably no small amount of procrastination, I finally dug in. 

The past few weeks have been spent practicing. Painting glass and shiny stuff and fruit and all things cocktail have occupied every day, punctuated only by the occasional "prop shop." Scouring antique stores for vintage barware has been a treat, as has making bar-like backdrops such as the tiled mini-wall above.

I'll post select practice pieces here and on Daily Paintworks until I feel my style has evolved enough to do the final paintings. All are available for purchase unless otherwise specified.

Just for fun, here is the ever-growing collection:


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