When you have lots of painted flowers stacked about and real ones in vases sitting nearby as well, sometimes the real and the artificial get all jumbled together. In the view above the real flowers blend right into the receding painted ones.
late night studying
I made some drawings using Sennelier oil pastels and Neopastels to continue getting acquainted with my still life objects and with one potential arrangement of them for the table in the Big Painting. I just drew them as they appeared in an actual still life set up, which is slightly different from how they’ll appear in the painting. But being descriptive helps me get to know the things better. So I need some of that.
The blue field behind the objects now won’t appear in the Big Painting where they will be surrounded by the striped cloth on all sides.
Still figuring out the separation of the seashell from the flowers through which it’s seen — though that will be different in the final arrangement too where the seashell, if I include it, will be a little farther back and maybe seen slightly more from above …? Decisions, decisions.
the flowers jumped
I was nervous about starting, but I have begun putting the bouquet of flowers into the Big Painting. They take up a lot of space and occupy the central most part of the canvas so I know I need to broadly determine their forms first.
In the beginning I just locate them in generalized shapes. Later I have to paint individual flowers — or more accurately, I have to include the smaller, individual patches of paint.
I was nervous, but I’m over the jitters. Now it’s just paint, paint, paint.
trying to see into the future
On the studio floor putting the one canvas atop the other helps me visualize how the bouquet would look in its vase and also anticipates how much space this arrangement will take up in the painting for which these are studies.
They come out bigger than I expected. So I’m not sure what I’ll do about that, whether I use this motif anyway or maybe make it a little smaller. The vase is a little farther away than other objects on the table. I am unsure how much smaller that would make it appear. Will have to wing it, perhaps.
Anyway, I thought this arrangement turned out interesting.
more blast from the past
I painted this still life in the first studio that I ever had outside my house. The room had very dim interior light and huge ceilings. The vault of air above my head was enchanting. The room was badly lit and people coming by to say hello often asked me why I was sitting in the dark. But my still life and the canvas were lit well enough. I loved the diffuse light of that quirky place.
The painting became the DNA for several pictures. Over the years I’ve made versions of the idea. They all bear some resemblance to their parent and yet each one has its own identity too.
blast from the past
I painted these flowers ages ago. I got them from my parent’s backyard and assembled them quickly in a plastic storage container and painted them against a blue cloth. I was emulating a style of some artists I knew who all went to the same school. It intrigues me to see it now. I like the painting, but the sensation is like seeing a picture of yourself wearing glasses from some other era. Looking at the painting now I see lots of common feeling with the way I paint flowers today and tons of difference too.
a bigger bouquet
I got more flowers and added them to the existing bunch. And I started a second study. This one measures 24 x 18. I omitted the vase this time. In this study I’m just focused on the flowers themselves. But I keep adding new blooms to the group and some of what I painted reflects the bouquet the way it looked before the new additions. So it’s confusing.
But the main thing is that I’m looking at these flowers and painting them. I’ll keep painting flowers. When these wear out, I’ll get some more and paint those. I must sort these flowers out because even though I’m emulating Bonnard’s big dining room picture, La Salle à manger sur le Jardin, it has no flowers so I am already striking out on my own path. Paintings can change quickly. I started with Bonnard’s idea, but just the inclusion of the bouquet begins to nudge the whole motif into a different direction.
This flower direction is a good one to travel. The flowers exert some pull upon me. They suit my temperament, and I spend hours staring at them, describing their forms and colors with bits of paint.
most tentative beginning
It begins — still very dependent upon Bonnard’s picture. Recall I said that his version is the map I’m using. It determines the territory, but as the picture progresses I will be planting more and more of my own images and ideas into this painting. It measures 60 x 48 inches. I am trying to keep it vague enough to accommodate whichever window treatment I finally choose.
The foreground cloth was going to be pale yellow-white until I found the green cloth with stripes. The cloth’s beautiful color sold me on the idea that it should be included. Bonnard’s cloth was pale white with blue stripes. So the stripes have crossed over from his picture to mine. But now my table will be mostly green. Green in the window above and green on the table below.
not my flower
The tulip that I’ve decided to keep inside the picture is not my tulip. I don’t know where it came from. I found it while doing an image search on, I think, Jan van Huysum. It resembles his flowers but probably isn’t his tulip study.
Anyway, I stole it. Like the figs (Snyder’s figs, different painting).
beginnings
The current painting began TWO YEARS ago! Hard to believe. It began with this drawing, a drawing that I never finished.
Well, I’m pursuing that thought now even without that drawing!
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