Friday, May 23, 2008

Still Life with Little Red Knife, oil on Gessoboard

" Still Life with Little Red Knife "
Oil
12" x 12"
This is one of the paintings I just finished for my summer show. I have used this large vintage Homer Laughlin plate many times. I may still do some glazing in the shadow shapes. It's nice to have the luxury of time to consider a work. I have several 24x24 paintings underway based on earlier Daily Paintings. My first go on these pears, there was no knife. It needed a spark, more color and the knife fit nicely. I do love the square format.
Oh, more cherries in the market, too, so I'm excited to continue a series of them. I finished a large painting of bing cherries that I began a couple of years ago. Will post it soon, too.
Thanks for visiting!
Painting is available
Unframed: $850 Custom Framed $945 Free Shipping

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello!
Yet another cheery image!!! - thanks for brightening my night!

Anonymous said...

...shouldn't've neglected to rave on those shadows on the plate - lovely contrast to the blue-white stripes, both color-wise and composition-wise. Really excellent in addition to really cheery! Thanks-Thanks!!!

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Thanks, Anonymous, for the compliments. About the shadows. One of the nice things about posting paintings on a blog is it gives the artist a different perspective. I was considering more glazing of the shadows, however, I now see that the painting is done, finished! Sometimes when I post I see things that the painting needs.

Frank Gardner said...

Yes, it is done. Really like all the color in those shadows. The design is real strong with the stripes of the towel and the knife opposing them.
Now I want to see the other large ones.

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Thanks, Frank. I value your critiques! Please feel free to offer suggestions, always! I work solo, with very little input. Oh, I do trust my son's eye and he's brutely honest...like "that color really sucks, Mom." Then he'll suggest a color I hadn't thought of that works. While he chose not to follow in my footsteps, (wisely) he had such a love of art and his own easel here in my studio. Boy, could he whip out the work, joyfully and confidently. A reminder for those of you who have young children. ALWAYS say to them when they show you their art work " Tell me about your painting" (or sculpture, etc) NEVER ask "What is that?" The first opens up amazing stories, etc. the latter shuts them down.

theresamillerwatercolors said...

Beautiful composition and colors! I love it!

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

fabulous! i'm so glad you shared one of your larger paintings. this is such a strong composition. i love how the stripes of the towel lead you in and that you cropped one pear stem. the knife was a great addition and that red handle! i particularly like the arrangement of the pear stems...appearing random, yet i know you placed each one of them. shadow colors are just divine too. your daily paintings are pretty refined, but i really love to see how much more refined your technique/style is in a larger format.

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Thanks, Christine.
You hit on all the things I took into consideration when designing this painting! The pears were Bartletts from Chile. I had never seen such long stems on a pear. That's one reason I chose the perspective looking straight down rather than a more traditional view. The stems would not have been believable. This way I could let them run off the page. It doesn't show in the digital but I did add bits of the bright red in the stems, just to have a repeat of red somewhere.

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

It's a beautiful painting. I see the touches of complimentary color that you sprinkle throughout.
I like what you said about children and art. They are so confident.