Dear Subscribers,

Greetings! Happy Easter!

Firstly, as mentioned a while back, I got 2 paintings accepted into
Salon International 2010 at top-flight Greenhouse Gallery. Well, their
online exhibit is already up, so I officially have my work on the
Greenhouse website 
....what a trip! If you're not familiar with this gallery, well....it's
da bomb.
  

 

 

I usually don't post my mess-ups, but hey, why not....this one was a
good lesson for me.
So I started a new still life. Here was the setup:
 
 

The first stage:
 
 

The next stage: My concept was to make the yellow onion the center of
interest, with the most light and surrounded by the most intense
color...the bright purple onion and the blue cloth (with the cloth
become gradually less saturated)
 
 

The next stage: It is kind of working, but I'm realizing that it's not
enough...the scene is dull
 
 

The next stage: I tried 3 or 4 different background schemes (light high,
light low, tight pattern, loose, etc...) before deciding that the
composition really wasn't working for me--the painting was fundamentally
weak, and no amount of color and value adjustments was going to fix it.
 
 

So, (scrape scrape scrape) off comes the paint. Lesson learned--don't
get careless with my compositions. Also, there is something incredibly
liberating and cathartic about wiping out a painting....sometimes you
gotta just move on.

I started working on a portrait commission! Probably show you next time.

Until next week,

David A. N. Cheifetz
www.davidcheifetz.com

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