Day 22 - Garlic SOLD

8 x 8, oil on panel

This may look like a black and white painting, but in fact I use no black paint at all. And the light areas are made up of many colors to make cool and warm whites. There really aren't any "pure" whites at all.

This closeup shows more of the color:

To make this painting I used a palette of no more and no less than:
- ultramarine blue
- raw umber
- cadmium yellow medium
- permanent violet medium
- titanium white

These are the colors I use to make most my paintings. Sometimes I also use cadmium red and cerulean blue, but not today.

I have been reading a painting instruction book by David A Leffel, who does beautifully dark and mysterious still lifes. I decided to try today to approximate some of his ideas in a 1-day sketch. I'm interested in how he paints edges, and I tried to focus on leaving some edges soft and making some hard, so the objects really seem to emerge out of the darkness.

I am excited by this experiment and am looking forward to trying a multi-day painting like this. It will be much easier to build up the full tonal range after some layers of the paint have dried; in these one-day paintings I am always working wet on wet.

Day 21 - Ladies' Vanity Table

$65 - Click title to buy
8 x 8 inches, oil on panel

I worked all afernoon on a painting of this still-life, and hated it. So I started over and did this one which I am much happier with. Lucky for Nowell.... living with me after a bad painting day is not fun.

I bought this ladies' compact on eBay, it's really beautiful and I hope to paint it in more detail soon.

Day 20 - Figs on Gold SOLD

8 x 8, oil and mixed media on panel

Last night our friends came up for a visit to the Big City from where they live down on the Peninsula. Before our dinner reservations we hung out at our house and I introduced them to the wonderful combination of sliced figs on basil leaves with goat cheese.... mmmm!!!

Thanks everyone for all your continued support! I'm 2/3rds through my "30 days" project and trying to decide what my next steps will be.

I bought a few trinkets on eBay recently, maybe they will appear in my paintings soon. I'm amused at the idea of painting eBay items and then selling the paintings back on eBay - sort of a full circle experiment.

Day 19 - Hummingbird & Figs SOLD

9 x 12, oil on panel

Day 18 - Three Bottles SOLD

9 x 12, oil and mixed media on panel

Day 17 - Three Little Peppers SOLD

8 x 8 inches, oil on panel

Day 16 - Golden Hummingbird SOLD

8 x 8 inches, oil on panel
I wanted to play with reflections and set up a little challenge for myself today. I think my little golden hummingbird will appear again, it was really fun to paint.

Blogger is behaving better today, so here are the in-progress shots:

Day 15 - Gardenia in a Box SOLD

10 x 10 inches, oil and mixed media on panel

Day 15 - Halfway through my 30 days!

I worked on this painting longer than most and it was nice not to have to rush, although I still ran out of light near the end. "Daylight savings" has robbed me of another hour of afternoon light.

The background is built up with alternating layers of gold leaf and tissue paper and brown stain. The tissue paper soaks up the glue and becomes nicely transparent.

Two seashells and a quartz sphere sit on top of the box, I like the contrast of the perfectly machined sphere next to the wobbly spirals of the shells. I think the skull looks less menacing in this context - more like part of a naturalist's little collection. I think of this as my tiny "cabinet of curiosities".

Gardenia petals are quite thick, evident from the fat curls at the edges. I'd love to do a more detailed study of this flower, it was so enjoyable to paint. And for once my studio smells better than the usual turpentine and rubber cement fumes.

Edited to Add: Blogger was being cranky about uploading images yesterday but it's faster today, so here are the process shots:

Day 14 - Dahlia and Seashell - SOLD

10 x 10 inches, oil and mixed media on panel

Today was lovely - I went to brunch in the Castro with my friend Lisa, and after stuffing ourselves on gourmet San Francisco versions of sausage 'n' biscuits and corned beef hash, we walked off our meal by wandering the neighborhood. I bought a bunch of fun little things for potential use for still lifes, including this dahlia.

I'm excited about the idea of arranging my miniature still lifes in a little box like this, I might do it as a series.

Day 13 - Pop Pops SOLD

10 x 10 inches, oil and mixed media on panel

Remember "Pop pops"? Little twists of paper you threw on the ground as a kid to make a loud bang. I think we called then "snappers". Are American kids today allowed to pay with gunpowder? I bought these in Chinatown.

Day 12 - Rodent Skull on Gold - SOLD

10 x 10 inch oil on golden leafed panel

This is a small rodent skull I found with my friend Jaimee while walking on the beach at Point No Point near Seattle.

It's probably not possible to paint the lovely forms of an intricate skull without the inevitable associations of death. The narrow arch of the bone around the far eye socket is the whole reason I wanted to paint this object. But it can't seem to escape it's morbid associations.

Oh well, call it my Halloween contribution.

Day 11 - Heirloom Tomatoes SOLD

9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

Today was the first day I thought I might not complete a painting. I started one, but at 4:30pm it wasn't working, so I scrapped it. Then I started this one. I had to work fast because I can only paint by daylight, but I finished by 6:30pm, while there was still a pale glow. Someone asked me today and I didn't know - when is daylight savings time?

Some process shots:

Day 10 - Bottle and Seashell SOLD

10 x 10 inches, oil and mixed media on panel

A less traditional version of yesterday's pharmacy bottle. I love this little bottle, how it is both chunky and transparent, crude and ephemeral.

Some in-progress shots:

Day 9 - Glass Pharmacy Bottles SOLD

11 x 14 inches, oil on wood panel

I love these little antique medicine bottles, this is the first time I've painted them. I included the wooden match to show how little they are. I took a couple photos while I was working on the painting, here's the progression:

So, collage and gold leaf, or "pure" oil paintings? I really enjoy both, but I feel I should resolve my sensibilties into one approach eventually. For now, I'll just keep painting and see what happens.

Day 8 - High Heeled Shoe SOLD

10 x 10 inches, oil and mixed media on panel

For this background I built up several alternating layers of pale cream tissue paper and gold leaf. The tissue paper, when glued and stained brown, becomes somewhat transparent and allows a clouded reflective sheen to bounce up from the gold leaf beneath. It also makes a nice texture with creases for the brown stain to collect in.

Day 7 - Wine Country SOLD

4 x 6 inches, watercolor on paper

We were gone all day visiting wine country, but I brought along my travel watercolor kit and managed to do a painting between tastings. This is the view from Rombauer Winery in the Napa Valley.

We don't get much of an autumn in San Francisco - in fact, it hit 80F on this late October weekend - but the fields and vinyards are turning colors up in Napa. Made me a bit homesick for New England, where I lived until 6 years ago. But I don't miss those winters!

Nowell snapped some shots of me painting, here are a couple:

No eBay link today because this one is sold already! Our friend Christina's father is visiting from Iowa, and he bought the painting on the spot to commemorate our California wine tasting day. Thank you, Dennis, I am honored!

Day 6 - Egg and Cream Pitcher SOLD

10x10, Oil on canvas. I thought I was done with it yesterday but ended up spending a couple more hours on it this morning. So it's officially my Painting of the Day, even though I thought I wouldn't paint today.

Tomorrow is another story.... We have plans to spend all day in wine country with friends. Gonna be hard to squeeze a painting in, as they want to start at 9am with mimosas. Will do my best, but I might have to do two on Monday instead.

Day 5 - Candy and Flowers SOLD

11:45 pm - Just under the wire!

I did two paintings today. Tomorrow is my sister's wedding and I don't think I'll have time to paint one, so I'll upload the second one tomorrow.

Isn't this a fabulous corset? The piece is called "Candy and Flowers" because in the background there is a bag printed with "Fine Bon Bons" in French, and a botanical illustration of flowers. Along with more Spanish (love?) letters - some ripped into pieces...

Day 4 - Egg Alter SOLD

Ok, I really bit off more than I can chew today, putting this many elements in the painting. I'm considering this one to be a "study", because there's so much more I need to do to it, although it took more time than any of the others so far. I only stopped because I lost the daylight, could have easily spent twice as much time on it. Or more.

The background is again actual gold foil, but the two pieces of masking tape and the gold burning-paper are all painted (as well as, of course, the egg, cup and stand). To really work it needs to be hyper-realistic trompe l'eoil with nifty glazing, but no time for that in one day!

I'm seeing it big in my mind, so maybe one day I'll do a nice big one like this.

Day 3 - Pear and Two Vases SOLD

10" x 10" Oil and mixed media on wood panel

For this painting I rubbed off patches of the gold foil background to expose the brown stained wood beneath for a "rusted" effect.

I am realizing these first three paintings all use lots of transparency and reflection, two effects which unfortunately don't show up so well in photos!

The paper with the handwriting on the lower half of the painting has a history. I bought it off the street from a drunken man in Mexico a few years ago. He was walking out of an antique/junk shop in San Miguel de Allende as I was walking in, weaving a bit and carrying a sheaf of papers he apparently had tried to sell to the shop. I don't know what the documents say, but they are beautiful - written in Spanish in an old-fashioned ink script on embossed letterhead.