Still Life Oil Painting
I love learning new skills, from website design, to framing, and everything in the middle. This is my first year of having two very independent teenagers with their own cars and I finally have that precious commodity… time. Ok, I still have a 40 hour a week non-art job that pays the mortgage, but the rest of my time is open for fun!
So this is my year of learning. Prior to being vaccinated I was absorbing zoom classes and online videos. Now I have two LIVE workshops coming up – I can’t wait!!!
My May fun has been participating in Judy Vilmain’s ‘Super Charge Your Painting Skills” zoom class. This was my first class assignment – a bowl of fruit.
My second assignment – I LOVE the aqua Ball jars. I have a few from local antique store and couldn’t resist trying to paint one. Yellow and blue is one of my favorite color combinations. I felt like the light on the vase improved with this one. The Ball jar was a struggle but what new thing isn’t? What I really enjoyed was the ability to focus on details without the light changing by the minute. What a welcome change from capturing plein air landscapes!
The last assignment was to paint a flower – a subject I love and feel fairly competent in with watercolors. Definitely not the case with oils. These were a struggle and still not so great. I chose clematis because I thought the simple leave structure would be easy. Hah! They fooled me. Oh well, not a beauty but a fun challenge. I am working on a orange bearded iris now. Let’s hope that comes out better.
For anyone trying learn still life painting, check out Paul Foxton‘s videos on YouTube. I found them very helpful.
Love the journey
May’s journey into painting still life has been a great experience that I plan to continue. I hadn’t painted a still like since high school art class and really didn’t think it was my cup of tea. But the practice has really improved my observation skills and paint mixing skills. With still life you have the time and controlled light environment to get it right. That doesn’t mean I always do, but hey – I am still learning 🙂
