Two Paintings

These are the latest paintings I've done. Both are in acrylic, which I haven't used for quite awhile. The top painting is one that Thom commissioned.........a portrait of his neice and her family. He will be giving it to them for Christmas. Since I wanted it to dry right away, I went to acrylic instead of oil. I immediately remembered why I had always liked that medium and was so enthralled that I kept using it after the first painting was done.

The second is a pile of vegetables that a former student gave me. As with most home gardeners, she had so much produce she couldn't use it all. Apparently she gave it away to everybody she could think of. I am not really a friend of hers, so I can only assume she was scraping the bottom of the barrel for places to unload the bounty. I have since made stew, but before that I photographed them several times just as they landed when I put them on top of the washing machine. They were still in the plastic bag they came in.

I can envision doing several paintings of them from different points of view. I did this with just three colors, plus white, as I always do. In fact, my palette was even more limited than usual because I didn't have any of my favorite cadmium red light. I don't think my students ever quite believed me when I told them how few colors I used, but this is just ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, and cadmium yellow. Ordinarily I would have had a cooler blue (my cerulean that I used up doing the portrait), a warmer red, and a cooler yellow as well, but I found I didn't really need them. The primary colors will make any color known to the human eye.

The portrait is 18x24 and the vegetables is a 12 inch square. It's interesting seeing them side by side out of proportion. Also, the portrait was photographed by David, then manipulated with his software that can make pictures look exactly as they really are. It's a wonderful job. I am so happy with that portrait I hated to give it up. I could have stared at it with admiration and pride forever. I suppose that is quite vain of me.............but so be it. The thing is a masterpiece!!