color sketch

This sketch is done in Derwent Graphitint water soluble colored graphite. Its just what it claims to be weter soluble graphite with pigment added. I really like the way the color lays on the paper, especially after it is wet. I find it completley different from (and I like it alot more than)traditional watercolor pencils. The addition of the graphite gives it the feel of regular graphite pencils, and I find the colors so much richer than the traditional water color pencils. I'm practicing with just 12 colors right now, but I plan to get my hands on the full 24 color range soon. (Jerry's Artarama here I come.)

value study 1

I've just begun working on a series of still life graphite value studies, that will (hopefully) turn into a series of paintings (in pastel or oil) sometime in the (near) future. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of studies using common kitchen objects and food items. I especially like the way the shape of the tureen picks up on the shape of the winter squash , and the bowl of the ladle picks up the shape of the onion. I think I'm begining to make sense of this composition thing. I've intentionally left the tureen less well developed to facilitate transfering the drawing later on since the values of the left side of the tureen and its shadow tend to run together.

The squash is a Celebration acorn--a heritage variety with a firm flesh and a nutty flavor that tastes marvellous with a bit of butter and brown sugar. They're small enough that a single one is perfect to serve two people. I liked it so much that I've saved the seeds and will try to grow them in my own garden next summer.

Each of these sketches takes 2-3 days to complete so I will probably not be posting every day for the near future.

squashes from my garden

A 5.5x8.5 graphite sketch.

negative glass sketch

This 8.5x9 inch still life in charcoal and pastel on matboard is accomplished by first covering a piece of white matboard with an even coating of charcoal dust. Then the drawing was revealed with an eraser. Finally, the cruet at the back was glazed over with pastel.

Grandma's Doll

This 5x17 inch oil on watercolor paper is done in ultramarine blue and indian yellow with touches of titanium white for the highlights. It's done in a glazing technique with Liquin. The "doll" is an unglazed pottery figurine about eight inches tall. She used to carry a basket of flowers, but that got broken some time ago by small fingers exploring.

Hanging Basket

This 8x11 inch still life is done in oil on watercolor paper.

Still Life Sketch

This is an 8x12 inch graphite sketch on sketch paper.

Arrangement in Green

Etude en Vert

This 16x20 still life is done in oil on traditional stretched canvas. It is one of the three paintings that are hanging in the gallery at Maison Catherin'Art. If it looks somewhat familiar its because its the predecessor of the pastel I posted on 23 September. That one was titled Still Life with Harvest.

Tribute to Vincent

I finished this 16x20 inch pastel on sanded paper yesterday.

Still life with pitcher

This still life is a 10x12 oil on stretched canvas.

guacamole pre-constructed

This 9x12 inch oil sketch on canvas is part of what I call my 'pre-constructed' series. The notion of pre construction comes from watching the Food Network and the trend of serving food in a de-constructed state. The best example I've seen of this is the chef who served a 'deconstructed' lemon meringue pie--On a long shallow plate he placed a wafer (to represent the crust), a serving of lemon pudding (to represent the filling), and a meringue based cookie (to represent the meringue)--voila! lemon meringue pie deconstructed. A bit too precious for my eating tastes, but the genesis of an excellent idea around which to build still life portraits of the everyday.

Fantasie still life

This 9x12 inch oil on canvas is made up of what I call 'invented objects' which bear no relation to any objects in reality.

Still life with sunflowers

This is a 9x12 inch oil on canvas. Even on canvas, sunflowers always bring with them a hint of late summer, and always evoke thoughts of sad, bad, and quite mad Vincent van Gogh.

Still life with harvest

Thought for the week: It is said that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for only a day, but if you teach that man to fish, you feed him (and his family) for his life. This is true. But you must also consider that, having taught him to fish, if you poison his rivers, you haven't helped him at all.





A 16x20 pastel still life on sanded pastel paper.

Salsa and copper plate II

This 16x20 inch pastel work on sanded paper is the full color version of the greyscale one I posted on 15 September. It's not quite identical, but its close.

bread and jam

I'm thinking of turning this 5.5x8.5 inch graphite drawing into something more colourful.

Intimations of summer

This 11.5x16.5 pastel on sanded paper is based on the sketch I posted a couple of days ago. I'm surprised at how well the glass of the window turned out. It's the first time I've tried to render window glass in pastel. The berries look rather yummy too.

Merci pour les fraises Margo.

Omelet pre-constructed

This 11x15 inch still life is done in charcoal and graphite with a touch of white pastel for the highlights.

strawberries on a windowsill

This is a 5.5x8.5 graphite (3B) sketch on 60 lb Strathmore windpower sketch paper.

Salsa and copper plate

This is a greyscale soft pastel done on 16x20 sanded pastel paper. It was done as an exercise to see if I could render the highlights on the copper plate with black and white pastel. I think it worked out rather well.