#115 "More Fruit and Brass" 16x20 on linen panel

More fruit and brass! I started this piece in New Harmony. Our goal was to paint this still life in about an hour and a half. I knew I had to get the brass done as I wouldn't have access to it after that day. I wanted to get the fruit laid in and get the values and shadowing correct. Like a big dummy, I didn't take a photo of the still life so when I got back to the studio I was kinda flying by the seat of my pants.

In addition to the overwhelming amount of great information that was passed on, the art of glazing and the use of a fan brush really rocked my world! It's truly the effect I've tried to replicate with simple brushwork and light use of paint. Now comes glazing! By simply applying glaze to your paint it allows you to somewhat color over the existing paint (after it's dry) and add this translucent effect. Using the fan brush allows you to carry thin layers over existing paint and get a gentle blending while softening the edges. The trick is, how much glaze to add to your paint! That will take some time to learn. On this painting I glazed the fruit and the table top. You can see the softness as a result. I also glazed the hotspot area of the brass pot getting it ready to palette knife the final glob.

1. Below are the 3 stages this piece went through to get the final outcome.

Stage one. The way it looked after the first hour and a half painting from life in New Harmony

Stage 2. First day in my studio re-working the fruit and table top.

Stage 3. Utilized glazing on tabletop and fruit.

#114 "Brass and Flo Blue" 16x20 oil

A couple of weeks ago I attended, The First Brush of Spring in New Harmony, Indiana. I will have to say it was a game changer for me. I took my long time friend, C.w. Mundy's workshop.There was so much amazing information shared and we did a total of 10 paintings!!! Some of the paintings had to be done in 8 minutes. They were paintings of pears. The idea was to draw the pear, demonstrate the light side, core shadow shadow side and the drop shadow. There were several other components to the exercise but theses were the main ones. We worked on glazing and for me in particular, I worked on edges (or lack of) and value relationships. Getting the correct value relationships are essential for a good painting!!! In addition, I have always wanted to do a brass pot and a flo blue vase. Little did I know that I would get to do both at the same time!!! It was a great week. We worked hard by day and played around a bit at night!!!

Our amazing group of artists and instructors!

One of my 8 minute palette knife pears!

CW and I singing, "Where Were You Last Saturday Night."

C.w. Mundy doing a lecture demo.

This photo is of Quang Ho, and internationally known fine artist, playing "Stairway to Heaven,"    being sung by an opera singer, sitting next to an extremely intoxicated woman who just couldn't get enough of the blond sitting next to her. I've never laughed so hard in my life!!!