No. 74. Chilli Study on Blue

Oils Still Life Study on canvas panel. 7" x 5". Click here to buy this study.

I'm on a run of chili peppers , as you may have noticed. The little selection I bought at the supermarket was pricey enough, so there's no point in wasting the opportunity. 

In essence, this is a study in edges and colour. I kept the background loose as I thought that to describe it too accurately would detract from the composition. I put just enough detail in to suggest a patterned fabric and left it at that. They're an interesting subject to paint, peppers -they have a very reflective surface and the red ones have a surprising number of hues and temperatures. The middle pepper is a case in point; it starts at the stalk end as a very warm orange/red and drops in temperature to a cooler red at the blue end of the spectrum. I've found colour temperature to be one of the more difficult points to learn along the way. 

On another note; an American friend and very experienced painter, Frank Sandford pointed out something that was blindingly obvious once he revealed it to me as I was painting a study of a white jug recently. He suggested that there weren't enough reflections on the surface. I replied that I thought I had put in what was there; yet I already knew that what I had painted was somehow dissatisfying. He took a mirror and stood it in front of the composed objects and said 'That's what is being reflected here'. I felt like a complete pillock, actually, but there you are.

Below is this study framed in one of my new line of frames. What do you think?

No. 73. Peppery Dish

Oils Still Life Study on canvas panel. 7" x 5". Click here to buy this study.

While the delectable wife was off working last evening, I was left with the children, which meant trying to come up with something average that they might eat. I'm not the best cook, I'll admit. Unlike 'Er-in-doors, I merely eat to live. Volume, please -and plenty of chips. But I digress. I decided to rustle up a carrot soup, as is explained in the 'Good Housekeeping' cook-book on our kitchen shelf. I brought the youngest along on my bike to Superquinn, only to be told that the main ingredient other than carrots was sold out. There was a run on the leeks! End of my sudden and inexplicable ambition to cook. However, they did have little selection boxes of these cute chilli peppers and I bought one of those, so the trip wasn't entirely wasted.

I stress that I didn't feed them to the children, either. That would be cruel...

This little creation was cooked up in about an hour.

No. 72. Landscape around Baile an Sceilig

Oils Still Life Study on canvas panel. 7" x 5". Click here to buy this study.

I recently spent a week in the beautiful regenerated pre-famine village of Cill Rialaig. All around was the spectacular, wild scenery for which south Kerry is famous. The trouble was, though, that while the rest of Ireland was suffering blizzards and storms, I was gazing upon clear blue skies with the odd fluffy cloud passing in the distance. Therefore, I've had to create my own drama in my landscapes! This is all in keeping with lessons learned over the week -that the artist controls the work and the subject is merely reference matter. This is how I want the landscape to be; all Paul Henry piles of dark, rain-laden cumulonimbus cloud formations. If you are thinking of coming to Ireland, you should expect weather. Lots of it.

No. 71. Pear and Chinese Bowl

Oils Still Life Study on canvas panel. 7" x 5". Click here to buy this study.

This is a study in light value. I wanted to keep the values dark all over to have the objects looming out of the darkness.  My camera hasn't been able to capture the subtleties of greys on the ceramic dish or the warmth of the highlights on the rim. Photographing artworks is always fraught with problems, and I'm not much of a photographer. 

Something I learned during my time away studying in Cill Rialaig was the use of warm or cool greys for lightening instead of white.  As one of my colleagues repeated to me from his own tutor in New York, 'White is not your friend'. It seems that white does something to deaden a painting and should be used sparingly. Anyway, when I used the very warm, almost flesh-toned highlights on the rim, it brought the study alive. It's a pity this picture doesn't convey it very well.

No. 70. Orange & Vase

Oils Still Life Study on canvas panel. 7" x 5". Click here to buy this study.

Recently, I've been studying the work of David A. Leffel, the New York painter. I'll devote an entry to him later. He does wonderful work and has a great capacity for communicating his ideas to students. One of the finer points he tries to get across is the idea of having a concept for your painting. This could be whatever you're trying to get across to your viewer - the way light falls on a subject or an exploration of the treatment of edges, etc. In other words, not sticking to the reality of whatever it is that you're trying to depict. It's the process that distinguishes the artist from the student. There are decisions the artist has to make of what to include and what details to leave out or change. The painting itself becomes the reality and the subjects on the stand merely a point of reference.

Women in Art

A friend sent me a link to this video, compiled by Philip Scott Johnson. It's a timeline of depictions of women over the last 500 years. I think it's beautiful, magical and quite inspiring. According to the blurb supplied with the film, the music is Bach's Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma. For a complete list of artists and paintings visit http://www.maysstuff.com/womenid.htm