Still-Life

Since childhood, I have pondered the complexities and compositions of "the still-life." Whether it's a beautiful shiny piece of fruit, or the common pepper, or garlic bulb ... when light, shadow and color combine to illuminate a simple object, it becomes a work of art to please the eye.

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You will see several paintings of eggs in this gallery.  I teach my watercolor students who would aspire to be portrait artists, the best practice you can get for achieving "smoooooth" skin-tones, is by creating a painting of a smooth egg. The colors of eggshells are even similar to skin-tone! 

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I also teach beginning students to paint a simple onion, or a garlic, as those are multi-layered objects where light is seen through the "transparent layers."  I'm in hopes this will embed the idea in their minds that watercolor can be quite successful as a a multi-layered creation of time and patience.

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I love the added component of the varied textures of still-life:  soft cloth vs. glass or hard metal ... the leather of fruit vs. a smooth, round egg ... the reflections of a shiny piece of candy, vs. the soft glow of a glass marble, transparent to the light.  I am in love with "Chiaroscuro," and I attempt to express all of my paintings with that beautiful type of Renaissance lighting.

 

In short, I never saw a still-life reference photo I didn't see potential for, as a great work of art!