TASK: Make a quick drawing every morning for a month – using the same, simple setup (a kettle, a cup & a vase with a dry flower) as motif. Learning something? I’m not sure yet – but maybe … if I just keep going???
Tag: still-life
The worst thing a painter can do is flowers … part 1
For the past few years the Danish artist Tal R has made paintings and drawings of flowers in vases. Each work depicts a bunch of flowers picked by the artist from around his home in the Danish countryside, presented in a vase on a tabletop within a closely cropped interior space. See more here: https://vimeo.com/719780431…
Going graphic
Being away from the studio I experiment with simpler forms of art making. Here is a tonal sketch for @gabriellabuckingham marvellous new course experimental still life It all started with the forks – such fun shapes to make with a pair of scissors 😊 (Might come in handy for future painting)
Studio update
On my way abroad, hoping to finish my spring series before I go … 13 paintings almost there! What I’ve noticed is (just as with writing) I work best when having a deadline ahead. It somehow sharpens my decision making. My deadline for the spring series is tomorrow… The day set because I’m leaving for…
Notes for a new week
I have this praxis of writing morning pages (the Julia Cameron way). I have done them on and off for many years. I do them first thing in the morning. I write by hand in a room lit only by candles (– this to try to fool my inner critic to believe I’m still sleeping…
Still life paintings in 2021?!?
So why would one, or more precisely I, want to make still life paintings in 2021? I have asked myself this question quite often lately but have yet to find a good answer. Not only do still life painting seem a bit … old fashioned?! The still life has in fact always been regarded as…
When life gives you lemons …
I’m doing a class with the wonderful Gabriella Buckingham. It’s called “Experimental Still Life” and runs for 8 weeks. This is a short report from week 3 – the lemon week … Our main assignment this week was to paint a lemon – from life. I could treat my compositions and subject matter in any…
Dancing tulips
Samuel John Peploe ( 1871 – 1935) was a Scottish Post-Impressionist painter, noted for his still life works and for being one of the group of four painters that became known as the Scottish Colourists. Notice the tempo in this painting. It is as if the tulips are dancing. It is quite rare to find so…
Roses; epilogue
My rose text is done. Strange how one can work for weeks on a text which ends up at 567 words. But that’s how it is. For me, anyway. I have written this text on commission, it’s going into an exhibition catalogue. The text is written to a series of large-scale rose-drawings, pencil drawings in…
an attempt to meditate the passage of time
My area of interest – when talking about art – is first and foremost the contemporary art scene, but I must admit I have this weakness for Floral still life, as made by the Dutch in the 1600s. What really thrills me is when these two, the contemporary and the golden age, collide, as seen in the…
sub rosa 