Monday, December 15, 2008

" Green Pears in Dough Bowl "
Oil
9"x12"
Private Collection
Filling in for today's post is this little oil I painted a few years ago. The linen napkin gave me fits and now as I look back over this past year I realize how much the daily paintings have helped me with drapery. I am working on a commission this week that is taking some time, so no daily's til it's finished. Check out Neil Hollingsworth's latest commissioned work...talk about patience! These are much larger paintings then I have seen him do and I can imagine the amazing amount of work entailed. Notice his palette off to the right with all his premixed colors. Now that is palette discipline! I teach using a premixed palette when working from a photo. For plein air I will mix 4-5 values to get going. For large work I plan the entire painting's colors and premix them. All decisions are made and it makes painting more relaxing and I'm not tempted to just throw a bit of this or that color because I haven't used it yet. Whistler premixed and I love his work. So many ways to work, we each find what works for us. I usually premix most colors for my little daily paintings, too.

2 comments:

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

this is a beautiful painting jennifer. i like seeing your older work, while your style is distinct, your colors have really changed in your newer work, they are much brighter and seem to me to be in a higher key in some paintings. regardless i like your older and newer work equally.

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Tnanks, Christine. You are right and the reason is that my "daily" still life work is painted directly from the set-up. Larger and older paintings are painted from life and photos or photos alone. I want to start some set-ups that have a lower key which means using a dark box for the set-up. Stay tuned.