Still Life Workshop

I'm taking Peter Van Dyck's Still Life Painting workshop at Gage this week. I love his work - in particular, his interiors and figures, but am taking this still life class more as an opportunity to learn from him. Here's one of his beauties:

Peter Van Dyck, Alabama Studio Interior

Day 1: Good workshop, but not too excited about my current painting. Sifting through the still life prop boxes for something to paint was a new experience for me. I've currently got a grey cloth draping a box with a brass instrument, a wine caraf, and a eucalyptus branch. Tomorrow I may add another element to the arrangement to add some complexity or humor - something more random to work with. Wish I could paint something with life in it - with blood or sap running through it! Hoping to wrestle this into something I'm happy with tomorrow... Peter's demonstrations are interesting. I'll try to get a photo of one this week.

Day 2: Good day. My painting wasn't quite as uninspired as I'd remembered, and I chose not to add a new prop to the layout. I enlarged the caraf and reestablished the structure of the painting, then really lightened the foreground and deepened the background. I worked up the reflections in the bottle and insturment. I'm loving Gamblin's Transparent Earth Yellow, and Old Holland's Green Ochre and Transparent Oxide Red. Green Ochre and Trans Earth Yellow combine to make a wonderful range of colors perfect for representing brass. The background of the painting is still its weakest part. Learned a lot about massing tones and relatively close color areas so that shadows move into their objects. Spent time looking at Emil Carlson's work. Lovely.

Emil Carlson, The Samovar, 1920

Days 3-5: No blogging for a few days. We were busy in the evenings picking up supplies for my son's 9th birthday party and attending soccer club events. I finished the first painting on Thursday morning. Here's a photo of it:

Julie Devine, Bottle and Instrument, 2010

I can see where I've made some progress in the first painting. I like the vibrating shadow cast by the instrument and the colors in the brass, as well as the light effects on the glass and raffia of the bottle. I also like the top left corner which is a bit abstract looking, and the folds of the cloth around the table. I'm still not entirely happy with the top right third of the painting, which is relatively weak. I don't think I set up my initial composition well, so tried to think this through better for the second painting. For this one I brought an object from home:

Julie Devine, Still Life with Bionicle, 2010

I was more conscious about how to frame this one and established the thrust, perspective, structure, and flow lines very consciously from the outset, following the development Peter demonstrated in the painting he worked on in class. I'm quite happy with this, but wish I'd had antoher day to work on it and deepen and enrich it with another layer of paint. When I squint my eyes, the toy looks a bit like a floral object. :) Makes me laugh.

Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

Frederic Bazille, The Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes, 1867

When searching the Internet for my blog by name, I happened upon this poem by Robert Frost. I've read quite a bit of Frost, but I don't recall this particular poem. In Frost's work, there is often a tension between limitlessness and boundaries, the vast cosmos and the neighbor's fence. This poem describes not only the visual pull of the sea, but its visual limitations. It is a bound surface. In a way, he's describing the allure and limitations of a painting.

Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

The people along the sand

All turn and look one way.

They turn their back on the land.

They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass

A ship keeps raising its hull;

The wetter ground like glass

Reflects a standing gull

The land may vary more;

But wherever the truth may be--

The water comes ashore,

And the people look at the sea.

They cannot look out far.

They cannot look in deep.

But when was that ever a bar

To any watch they keep?

- Robert Frost

Howard Sochureck,
Poet Robert Frost Standing in Oxford Field with His Hand Over His Face,
1957


We cannot look out for, we cannot look in deep, and yet we keep looking. What keeps us looking?

Robert Henri, Cumulus Clouds, East River, 1902 

Robert Henri, Storm at Sea

Max as Ranuccio Farnese

My current painting project is a variation of Titian's portrait of Ranuccio Farnese, painted in 1542. Here's the original.

Titian, Ranuccio Farnese, 1542

I love the sensitive rendering of the boy's face and gesture, how he's a bit too small for his coat, and the gorgeous colors of his clothing. And, I think he looks a lot like my son, Max. So, for fun, I decided to copy this painting, but with the image flipped and the likeness of Max enhanced.
 
Here's how I started out on a large canvas. I rather like this sketch in its own right:
 

Julie Devine (work in progress), 2010

Here is the painting in its current state:
 

Julie Devine (work in progress), 2010

The shirt is so much fun to paint. I love the light effects in the silky fabric. In my next pass I'll also add more detail. I won't be taking it to the level of detail in the Titian - this will be a looser, more impressionistic take on the painting. The question is, can I get Max to sit for me for a few minutes? Unlikely!  I need the right incentive.

Flesh Ochre

I'm taking a still life painting class next week, and the list of oil colors required some shopping around the city. Lead White - I'm going to environmental hell for that one. Transparent Oxide Red - found it in Utrecht. Transparent Mars Yellow - found it under another name in Gamblin - Transparent Earth Yellow. But Flesh Ochre, nowhere to be found. This required a web search. Turns out it is only in Old Holland, which I'd purused at the shops, but missed. I think I was looking for something pinkish, gold, or buff. Turns out Flesh Ochre is a deep earthy red.