12.39 I paint in the background, which is white,  although it appears a violet grey blue in this light.  I try to paint it  a bit darker than it appears to leave ‘room’ for the highlights on the teaspoon. As I only have white paint to make the highlights, which is less bright than the actual metallic reflections,  I have to darken the rest of the painting slightly to  make these look right.

By 12.56 the shadow is done in rough, although I’m beginning to think I’ve keyed the whole painting too high at this point and will have to darken it down.

13.00 I start to paint in the spoon roughly, squinting at it to see the main tones and putting them down in blocks. A good rule is to work out the correct tone (or value as it’s also called) first and then you will find it easier to work out the colour. I also notice that I need a pink to mix the orangey colour of the light and squeeze out a bit of permanent carmine.

By 13.18 I have finished the basic block-in of the spoon – I have left the highlit area where the window is reflected blank so that I can paint this in near the end. This keeps the pale highlight from getting contaminated with the darker paint and makes it sit on top of the surrounding paint, helping to bring it forward.

13.20 I start to work the edges where the spoon meets the background before moving onto some of the details such as the reflections in the spoon head – these are the most enjoyable parts to paint and are what really attracted me to the teaspoon.

It’s important to keep your head as still as you can – you really notice how reflections change shape with just the tiniest movement to left or right.

13.34
After I start to add the highlights my concern about the high key is confirmed – I need to darken the background and shadow to make the highlights work.

13.53 I stop to step back, look at the painting in the mirror, and do the upside down test – does it still read correctly upside down and in reverse?

14.10 More work is done on the handle – the shapes of the reflections here aren’t helping to describe the form.

14.29 I’m asking myself how much detail and which details I shold use?  Which ones are essential to creating the illusion of the teaspoon?  The light is fading and I need to be decisive.

14.30 I soften the transitions in the handle with a tiny sable brush.  I try to keep blending like this to  a minimum, preferring instead to add an intermediate patch of colour in between two patches which need to be brought closer together. However, time is running out today.

14.33 I’m happy with the handle now and want to reinforce the shadow.

14.42 I think I’m done, will go away now for 10 minutes and do something else.  When I come back if anything needs work it should jump out at me.

14.50 the left side of the handle has become a bit distorted and needs straightening.

14.53 I’ve decided its finished – now its time for the clean up. Fortunately I only used 7 brushes today so it shouldn’t take too long.  This is my least favourite part !

15.20 I leave the painting to dry on my easel, along with some other recent work.  After about a week I will oil it out with a mix of linseed oil and white spirit – this evens out the surface sheen and brings the colours back to their original lustre.

After another couple of days to allow this oil to sink in I will photograph the work and spend some time adjusting  the image to get it as close to the original work as possible.  Then I can put it up for sale.

Red and Blue Bowls with Cherries

9×6″  Oil on panel

‘The ROI is the  only major national art society that is devoted exclusively to oil painting, featuring a wide variety of contemporary landscape, figurative and still-life paintings by some of the finest established artists working in oil today, alongside work by non-members.’

http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/index.php?pid=2&subid=86

For one thing, I think I get a bit greedy and impatient – I see something and want to paint it, then I see something else and want to paint that too- so a small alla prima study lets me follow my inspiration as it flits around from one thing to the next. They are also a great way of exploring small objects – ones which wouldn’t necessarily fit into a more traditional still life set up.

It was  a nice bright day today so at about 11.30 I set myself up for a painting session by the kitchen window, which faces north.  The light is really special at this time of year – a lot of cold blue reflected light from the sky, contrasting with the golden light of a low lying sun hitting bricks and autumn leaves.

At 12.00 I’m deciding what to paint.  I have  a peeled clementine with a curly strip of its skin in front of me, and also a teaspoon which is reflecting the light from the window.

(All the photos for this post were taken with my phone, so apologies for the poor quality).

Looking at the clock I think it’s going to be a bit tight trying to paint the clementine + skin so I opt for the teaspoon.  If the worst comes to the worst and I have to finish this another day the teaspoon will still be there waiting for me, but the clementine will have been eaten!

12.10 I lay out my palette – there are 4 colours which I always use – titanium white, ivory black, raw sienna and burnt sienna.  These provide me with the neutrals and near neutrals which are essential to realist painting.
The other colours I will use are cadmium yellow, winsor lemon, cobalt blue,  ultramarine blue and cobalt violet.
The little things which look like sweets are the remains of yesterday’s paint wrapped up in cling film.  This saves on wastage – most colours keep for a few days like this.

12.15 I seem to have got my hands covered in paint already.  Before I  spread it around and make a mess I wash my hands – I find rubbing them with baby oil before using soap and water is the best way to get the paint off.  While I’m doing this I notice how nice the old battered looking baby oil bottle looks in this light and think about painting it – but that will have to wait for another day!

12.20 I choose my support – a 7×12.5 cm piece of Daler Rowney mount board which I have previously primed on all sides with several layers of artists acrylic primer. Making these little boards allows me to make paint on a very small scale, and in any aspect ratio I fancy.  I can also hold the board in my hand as I paint, making it possible to achieve an informal, intimate view of the object, rather than the more formal upright view that easel painting tends to create.
As the teaspoon is a man made object I think it deserves to be drawn accurately. I make a little outline drawing in HB pencil. I don’t always bother with this if its an organic object as they leave a bit more room for interpretation.

12.22 I check the drawing from a distance, both with a mirror and upside down – all handy tricks to help you spot your errors.

12.30 After making a few adjustments I erase the line lightly to prevent it from muddying the paint. Sorry about the blurry photo for this stage.

Now I’m ready to start painting.  In my next post I will show  you my painting process.

The exhibition runs from 4th to 12th August, please visit their website for further details.

http://www.huxleyclothing.co.uk/blog/the-huxley-purchase-prize-at-the-discerning-eye/

Here’s a little painting which celebrates that feeling:

Oil on card 3×2″

Just the greens and blues for now, the  yellows, reds, oranges, pinks and purples are to follow!

Here’s a little  seasonal still life just finished .

hope you all have a very Happy Christmas : )

I left during the prize giving – big mistake - as the next day when I was looking at the DE website I discovered I had been awarded the Huxley Purchase prize! Mind you it was probably best that I was sitting down at home when I found out as I probably would have keeled over if I had heard it announced at the gallery..

So I’m glad I made the effort to enter this year – any artists reading this who haven’t given this exhibition a go  I recommend you try it – you never know your luck!

Here’s one of the paintings in the show – this one was an experiment - the first time I had painted buildings or a sunset!  Sunsets are a bit of a dangerous subject as they can be rather cheesy – but I think this one works ok.

10×6″

‘This Neo- Dada, which they call New Realism, Pop Art, Assemblage etc., is an easy way out, and lives on what Dada did.  When I discovered ready-mades I thought to discourage aesthetics.  In Neo-Dada they have taken my ready-mades and found aesthetic beauty in them.  I threw the bottlerack and the urinal into their faces as a challenge and now they admire them for their aesthetic beauty’.

This somehow resonated with me, and made me think about the lighter series I’m currently working on.  I find beauty in mass produced objects.

However, although I like Pop Art, I don’t really feel much affinity with the aims of pop artists such as Andy Warhol, whose response to the mass produced object was to create mass produced art without trace of human craft.  Other artists such as Jasper Johns took a more painterly approach which is something I can identify with, although the resulting paintings are very different from my own.

My response to the ready-made is to create a unique, individual painting.  I see the exceptional in each object, and although I make use of repetition in the composition, there is also variation.  My attention to capturing the quality of the light also places the objects firmly back in the natural world, of which I feel man made objects are a part – because we ourselves come from nature.