Winter squash 2

I had painted this squash once before, and in the meantime, since I hadn't eaten it (I'm not a big fan of winter squash), it obliged me by turning from mostly dark green to this marvelous color. I'm not sure if that means it can't be eaten anymore, but it is gorgeous to look at.

This was a really frustrating painting. I kept re-doing stuff, and it got later and later, and pretty soon I had spent 3 hours on it and was hungry and tired and utterly sick of it all. I had actually decided to do some blending for a change, not sure yet how I feel about that either. Anyway, I'm really glad it's done.

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Satsuma too/two, deja vu

Well, this was a fun experiment. About five posts ago (post title: Exciting Evening), I painted a satsuma tangerine. I liked the result a lot. Then today I was checking out one of my favorite realist painters, Jonathan Koch, and saw he'd painted a satsuma too (he has painted them before, I believe; he seems to favor fruits and such, like I often do). Of course, I liked his better than mine...

Tonight when I went in to the studio to paint, I didn't have a firm idea in mind for subject matter. I set something up but didn't feel too excited about it. I tried something else--not much motivation there, either.  I then started eyeing the satsuma that was still sitting near my shadow box, looking none the worse for wear after being ignored for 5 days (except that the leaves were more shriveled). Of course, I just had to...

But to make things more interesting, I didn't look at all at the satsuma painting I did the other day. I did use the same palette (only because it's one I've been trying out for a few weeks to see if it suits my needs or not [jury's still out]), but didn't look at anything except the live, lighted tangerine in front of me.  I was extremely curious to know if I would come up with a similar result to what I did before; I'm always intrigued/dismayed/curious as to that elusive thing called "painting style." My art teacher Michelle Philip said she likes to "throw the die again and again and see if the same number (style) comes up."  I guess that's what I was trying to discern in this experiment. I sometimes don't even LIKE my "style," but it does seem to be something like one's handwriting or the way one walks, etc.--it's the way you do something and though you can learn to perhaps change specifics, your "style" will come out, like it or not. (Though hopefully, it will naturally continually evolve on its own, via experience.)

Interesting lesson/experiment tonight. I can't believe how similar this satsuma #2 is to the first one!

$115.00 - Satsuma 2 (Ready to Frame)

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Seen a lotta marinara, baby

This old wooden spoon has seen perhaps at least ten years of spaghetti sauce, stir-fry, and sauté.  It must be tired.


It's also another of those unwitting, painful painting lessons about deciding to try to paint something "simple."

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Thinking of O'Keeffe

I wasn't actually thinking about O'Keeffe when I painted this last night, but looking at it once it was done, I think I remembered her using a similar feather in at least one of her paintings. Anyone know what bird this was from? I found the feather in the park, and the pieces of sandstone I brought back from a hike.

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Bluejay feather and small copper pot

Today we're in a different house in Ajijic, Mexico, housesitting for an artist couple. I'm in heaven--art everywhere and a million art books and magazines...how awesome. I won't even have time to get through all the art magazines in the next five days...oh, how tragic and yet how heavenly!

I just painted a little still life to leave here for my hosts, but need to wait 'till tomorrow to photograph it when it's light outside (I always paint at night; I'm a night owl who only feels mentally awake at night). So in the meantime, here's one from October. I only realized about halfway through the painting that the shadow looks like some kind of Native American spirit figure (or something...you know what I'm getting at). Interesting.

$105.00 - Bluejay feather and small copper pot (Ready to Frame)

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Milkweed

I think that's what this is, a spent milkweed pod...yes? The Husband came in from a hike the other day carrying this (this was of course before the massive snowfall and frigid temps). "Paint this," he ordered. (He likes to give orders.)

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Winter squash

Another of those dastardly vegetables (like the eggplant in a previous post) that looks if not easy, then at least not too hard...and then proves to provoke a lot of gnashing of teeth and cursing for an entire evening and a half.

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Leaf

After an unbelievably beautiful, long fall, today is winter with a vengeance. I'm posting this now in order to procrastinate taking the dogs for their walk... good thing I picked up this leaf off the ground 2 days ago; there'll be nothing left out there now but mush.

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Holiday berries

...though not cranberries. These are something that grows as a very large shrub near our front gate. It has (I found out) big sharp thorns, too.  

The Husband had taped this little twig to our living room wall so he could test out his new tripod and macro lens camera. But I want to paint it! I exclaimed. No, came the response. It's taped up there right where I want it--don't move it!  

So I set up something else in the studio to paint and turned up the heat in there so I could work pretty soon. While waiting for the heat to start cranking in the studio, I sat on the couch back in the living room to do some internet time-wasting, er, work. While on the couch, I suddenly heard this tiny little thwack from across the room--the little twig had abandoned its post, falling to its death, and was promptly attacked by three cats at once. But!!--I rescued it and immortalized it in this painting.

Because we don't really celebrate any holidays (bah, humbug), did no family visiting thing, and are vegetarians to boot, this has been a few days of painting for me, rather than of consuming turkey. What did we have for our "Thanksgiving dinner"? Pasta with sautéed broccoli and pine nuts. By the way, anyone know any really good recipe for pumpkin pie without egg?

$115.00 - Twig with berries (Ready to Frame)

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Pomegranate 2

So, after the difficult eggplant I painted the other night, I decided, I'll try to paint something much more complicated, since even the easy stuff is hard (weird logic, but hey). Hence the pomegranate here...which, oddly enough, turned out to be not so hard to paint. Go figure.

$185.00 - Pomegranate 2 (Ready to Frame)

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Easy...not

We should all learn to kill that little voice in our art brain that goes, "Oh, I know! I'll paint a (insert name of object)...it looks easy." This eggplant kicked my ass. I (hope that I) will never again underestimate the difficulty of painting an object that has a simple shape and color and looks easy.

Sold.

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Dark and mysterious?

I enjoyed how this turned out, though it certainly has quite a noir feeling...n'est-ce pas?

$115.00 - Pomegranate (Ready to Frame)

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Channeling Cezanne?

I didn't set out to do an impressionist-style painting, but that's kind of what this turned out to be (except I think they didn't really do dark shadows). Interesting. Although I tried my best photographing it, it has in reality a liveliness and quality of light that was impossible to capture photographically. Oh well--guess you'll have to see it in person.

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First post!

Like many new bloggers before me, tonight I take the first steps in this auspicious and sometimes extremely frustrating technological journey. Welcome to my art blog. "Art every day"--doing, thinking about, looking at. Art Saves Lives, I once saw on a bumper sticker. I think it's true. Or at least that it's possible.

Tonight's painting I did was an oil, called Slightly Overripe Pear, because, well, that's what it was. We should've eaten it a few days ago. There's something about pears and bananas--when they get even, say, half a day beyond perfect, they kind of repel me.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com