Tuesday, December 30, 2008

It's Not Easy Being Blue, alla prima oil painting

This painting, featuring a blue glass vase, a brown ceramic jug holding a bunch of pink flowers, bronze urn, a maroon ceramic tea pot, a copper kettle, a glass bowl with a white onion inside, a couple of lemons and Macintosh apples, and an acorn squash, was my eighth that I completed for my alla prima oil painting class offered at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia, PA.

This is probably my most complete painting to date from this class. This composition my teacher, Giovanni Casadei, set up is one of my favorites.

One of the things I like best is the large shadow that is cast across the urn and acorn squash. I made sure I finished the cast shadows for this painting since it's something I always leave til last. I know it's one thing I want to work on. I want to paint them in when I do the table surface; it seems the logical thing to do though I have overlooked it consistently. Everything in time, right?

I believe the white cloth is the weakest part of the composition; not horrible, but I'd like it to be more defined. As I stated before, I really want to work on painting drapery. The pink flowers could also use a little more depth that a stronger shadow would provide. In that same area, a stronger highlight on a couple of leaves might have increased the sense of light shining from the left.

Giovanni made the point in this work, my last painting and my final piece--which has yet to be posted--that I need to work on varying my brushstrokes. Again, everything in time.

Recommendations anyone?

What materials do you use?

I was originally trained with traditional oils. I moved on to alkyd oils because I liked the fact that they dried more quickly but still pro...