Wednesday, February 07, 2007

daily painting practice - weekly still life progress

Off and running. Time to think about some color...
Trying to keep the lightest light and the darkest dark and add the correct color... all that and make sure the drawing is correct. No wonder artists need retreats.
I am fiddling with the background too much again. This usually means there is something bothering me about the painting. Better take a step back before doing more.
A small detour
Apples in a Copper Pot
4"x4"
oil on canvas board

I thought I would throw in a little surprise. This is the smallest painting I have ever done. I did it to see the difference in my thinking between a small work and a large work. This took about 20 minutes and I had fun the whole time. Here are some of the things I noticed when I do a larger painting:

... It seems the bigger the canvas the larger the worries.
... The larger the piece the more detail I try to squeeze in.
... my brushes do not increase in size with the scale of the painting
... I lose focus and have a harder time seeing a simple abstract design.

Hopefully knowing this I can figure out a way to see the simple in a larger format. In the mean time.... paintings like this one keep it fun!

2 comments:

Louis Boileau said...

Lookin' good Peter...both of them.

Anonymous said...

Hi

Can you please blog about the MAP movement over at MyArtPlot.com? Good or bad -- can you please let us know what you think? MAP has some lofty ideas on how to empower the art profession and change the art industry but we would love to hear your perspective and critique. Your blog is so well read!

Thanks,
Kim