Dear Subscribers,

 

Greetings!

 

New still-life. Sometimes simple is nice.

The setup:

 
 

 

First stage:

 
 

 

Next stage. After the umber drawing I paint this with a palette knife.
With a knife my approach becomes slightly different. I start slathering
on plenty of paint to work the vase with...knowing i'll be smearing in
more paint later. I don't want the blue to dominate, so I just think of
the vase as a very dark mass:

 

 
 

 

Next stage:

 
 

 

Next stage:

 
 

 

And the finished painting, "Binary"
  (8x10):

 

  

 

(Click through the image above to get to the Facebook "Like" button!)

 

I've shown you failed paintings in the past. I think it's important part
of painting.

Let's just give this an official name. How about:

 

The Fail Log.

Two botch-eriffic entries this week.

I decided to embark an a little exercise. Painting still-life from
imagination! It's an exciting idea, being completely free and not being
limited to objects that I have acquired. My eagerness got the better of
me: As in 99% of my past failed paintings, the following two were doomed
due to lack of planning... AKA laziness.

 

 

 

 

For this one (20x16), I thought a giant bell would make an awesome
subject. The first iteration of the base started to remind me of some
strange giant cash register bell, I thought that was funny. I like the
placement of the bell, but I didn't really think through the foreground
objects, just sort of decided to see what happened.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

I wiped it out soon after this. I'd started to establish that pool of
light near the blue bottle and then directionless floundering ensued. I
made the mistake of not having a totally clear mental vision of the
final product before starting. Also the bell wasn't a great shape.

 

And another. This one painted with a palette knife (8x8).

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

I'd vaguely planned to have a bunch of grapes and another tangerine on
the left side, but once again didn't have a clear vision for the overall
composition. Oh when will I learn? The result is a neat-looking
half-a-painting. Wipe.

 

Two wipes in a row. There are definitely worse ways to spend two days,
but I would have been better served to spend an entire day thinking and
carefully planning a composition before putting any paint down.

 

I'm still intrigued by the possibility of still-life from imagination,
but without anything physical to fall back on, planning becomes
especially important.

 

 

Still life class update. A bunch of student work!:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Currently being shipped off to R.S. Hanna Gallery:

 
"From North Beach to the Pyramid"
 

 

JUST SOLD!:

 
 

"Shroud" at RS Hanna Gallery

 

Until next week,

 

David A. N. Cheifetz
www.davidcheifetz.com

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