Silver Pot and Oranges in Side Light SOLD

This shiny silver pot is such a good subject for reflections.  I used a shield to throw a shadow across the left side of the still life. The shadows add more drama and make the highlights more exciting.  I especially like the red reflection on the rim of the lid.  This painting will be in the Vashon Art Studio Tour the first two weekends in May.  Link to map of Vashon Spring Art Tour  I will be showing my paintings at Stop # 23 in Dockton.  See you there!  In the meantime, this painting is at my ETSY store

Blue Teapot and Eggshells SOLD

A month ago I painted the teapot, last week I painted the eggshells, in this post I put them together.  I combined warm browns in the eggshells and cool grays and blues in the background and teapot.  The colors are subdued and desaturated so they complement each other nicely.  I like the pale warm color inside the shadow of the eggshells.

Three Eggshells SOLD

A very simple subject matter, painted in medium and high values, with very simple warm/cool contrast.  On my ETSY store

Two Eggplant Silver Cup SOLD

This still life was the result of a shopping trip to Uwajimaya grocery in Seattle.  There they have the most amazing variety of produce, including these beautiful little round eggplant.  The stems are a soft fuzzy yellow green which is a delicious color to paint.  I like the reflections in the tabletop. 

Blue Teapot Blue Cups SOLD

Another painting of the blue teapot but with blue and turquoise cups. All the colors of blue make the painting harmonious, but the wide value range adds drama.  On my Etsy Store.

Blue Teapot White Cups SOLD

The teapot was a gift and has been on the shelf for a while.  I put it together with the white cups and am very pleased with the sparkle and contrast.  The only pure whites in the painting are little dabs of highlight on the teapot.  I like the minimalist colors and the very tiny stripe of red in the reflection in the teapot.  I think that red stripe comes from the way light bends on a convex surface.  I see this sometimes in the edges of objects in bright glare.  (Though it might just be a distortion attributable to my bifocals.)

Camellias in a Pewter Pot

The camellia sasanqua is blooming just outside the front door and cries to be painted.  It has large white single flowers with stunning yellow centers and a tropical fragrance.  I like the stiff dark green leaves against the soft white flowers.  In our garden,  the most fragrant flowers are from this time of year.  Sort of a bonus to offset the short days and rain.

Red Sunset North End Ferries SOLD

This is a view familiar to commuters who are waiting at the Fauntleroy ferry dock late on a sunny afternoon. Two ferries are 3 miles away at the north end of Vashon; the sun has gone behind the hills leaving the ferries in shadow and turning the hillside red. 

Rainy Day Sea Stacks SOLD

Painted from a photo I took on a trip to the Washington coast several years ago. It was a cool rainy day, and the headlands and sea stacks were obscured by rain and mist.   A very low tide exposed lots of large rocks along the seashore.  A friend and I explored the tidepools and saw lots of rocks that looked like swiss cheese.  Some sort of mollusc, or possibly a sea urchin, bored these holes into the solid rock for protection. 

Three Cherries on Gray with Reflections SOLD

Three cherries lined up in a row, but with a little bit of variation; a wider space on the right, a taller stem on the left.  I like the soft edges where the reflections on the cherries are close to the values in the background.  I deliberately lost and painted out parts of the stems so that they would disappear into the background.  It makes the stems look like they are curved toward the viewer.  The cherries cast a shadow to the right, but reflected vertically.  Where the reflection and the shadow intersect is the darkest area beneath the cherries. 

White Cup Stack and Five Cherries

Sweet dark cherries are in the store now and I have to paint them while they are in season.  I really enjoy their shiny surfaces. The color of the reflection in the cherries is actually rather dark; a mix of the local color of the cherry (dark red), the additional darkness from the shadow, and a bit cool white from the tabletop.  

White Cup and Three Dark Cherries

It's cherry season again.  These are early sweet cherries - so dark they're almost black, so I paired them with white and gray for strong color harmony and threw in just a touch of red and gold in the lightest areas of the stems and fruit.  Although the cup is white and is sitting on a clear piece of glass that is on a white tabletop, the painting is mostly gray, so that only the few highlights are actually white.  I like the little bits of red in the cherries, they seem to glow. 

Mini Daffodils and Two Vases SOLD

Both miniature daffodils and regular daffodils fill these two square glass jars.  We planted hundreds of bulbs last fall and surprises are popping up all over the yard.  I like the combination of yellow and gray and even put some yellow into the gray background  to make it all warm and harmonious.  I also like how the big piece of gray in the background follows through the foreground shadows and unifies the whole piece.  There are lots of light speckles but enough solid gray to keep it from being totally jumpy. 

Opening Daffodils

Spring has been early and this is the last of the field daffodils from the supermarket, though we still have many other varieties in our yard.  I can't resist these, they are so inexpensive and such a glorious riot of yellow.  I painted this with a cool dark gray background, but when it was done I added yellow ochre to the still wet gray to warm it up and make it all more harmonious. 

Red Camellia, Round Jar SOLD

This camellia is just fabulous and flamboyant.  The leaves are stiff and shiny and the flowers have such strong contrast between the red petals and the yellow stamens.  Red is a difficult color to paint because it is so intense; to paint a dark red in shadow, the shadow has to be almost black and the light struck areas aren't really pink, they're still red.  It's as though the colors are vibrating in a spectrum that can't be captured by mere paint. 

Pink Camellia on Gray

Another pink camellia painting.  The flowers are so dense and soft and the leaves are so stiff; there's a lot of textural contrast.   I like the lights in the glass jar.  These flowers last only a day or two in a bouquet, but will stay on the bush for a week.  They are among the first flowers of spring.

Pink Camellia on the Table

Spring has come early to Puget Sound.  The camellias are putting on a show.   The flowers remind me of roses (but no scent) and the leaves are waxy and stiff.  When the weather gets wet, as it often does in spring, the petals turn brown almost instantly.  12" x 12" On my ETSY store

Misty Day and Pushki

Another small  painting of pushki.  These large plants have white umbrella shaped clusters of flowers and are common in Alaska.  This painting will be in a show at Artique Ltd gallery in Anchorage in September.

Two Carnations in a Glass Jar

The carnations lasted beautifully and I managed to get several paintings.  This is the last for a while; now I have flowers in the yard clamoring for my brush.   The painting is a closeup of a simple bouquet with only part of the glass jar visible. I like the bright stiff red flowers against the gray background. I like the dark gray and how it contrasts dramatically with the light green of the flowers and stems. Painted from a still life I set up in my studio.
On my Etsy store

Red Carnations with Green Wall

A painting of red carnations with a bit of green in the against the wall.  I've kept the colors minimal; red and green are complements and when you mix them together you get gray.  I like the light striking the flowers.