Trompe L'oeil

"Boxed"

Oil on Linen, 9" x 12"

About ten years ago, I was primarily a pastel artist. It was about that time that I became interested in still life, having worked primarily on landscape. My early forays into this genre were mainly trompe l'oeil or "fool the eye" kinds of things. I thought I'd try my hand at it in oil. Depending on your screen the colors may or may not look convincing. The screen can do nasty things to color temperature which in a piece like this makes all the difference.  Do wish you could see this in person. It's more fun. 

A Measure of Success

"Just a Little Tin"

Oil on Board, 5" x 7"

Well, this was fun.  This started out to be a small exercise in value and temperature - my favorite subject for exploration, and ended up taking more than a few hours to get right. Still, it was a lot of fun and the results were worth it. What's really surprising to a lot of my students, though, is that it took me as long as it did. They've seen me whip out larger pieces in half the time. But these days I'm taking a bit more time with my work in tweaking things.

I think the lesson here is that we are our own worst or hardest critic. I'd like to think that I'm learning to be a hard critic of my own work. Sure I can find a lot wrong with my work, but more importantly, I'm better able to answer the question; "did I achieved what I was after?" Starting a painting without a concept in mind is a lot like taking a road trip without a map. Sure, you may get to a lot of interesting places, but you won't necessarily get anywhere you started out wanting to go. So these days, before sitting down to paint even a small thing like this little ditty, I try to have a clear goal in mind. That way, I can answer the question, "was the trip worth the goal?" If I've actually learned what I was after to find out, then even if the painting is a dud, I've been a success. 

In Balance

I was going to call this painting "Ode to David Gray" as it was his style and palette that inspired this piece. But I  changed my mind and it became "In Balance" instead. 

I enjoyed the challenge of rendering the muted colors and edges in this piece. The color temperature was very challenging but I think I did a pretty good job overall. Fun.