Still Life Study

I have been working on cleaner, brighter paintings. Everything I read reminds me that a big problem with "chalky" or "muddy" paintings is painting inaccurate color temperature (Presently I am reminded of this because a horse I am working on keeps rolling in the dust....(in reality, I keep erroneously adding white to areas that should be warm...)).

To practice "warm" shadows and "cool" light, I set up a still life. I wiped out my shadows every time that I painted them "cool" (thinking "shadow= blue/grey" which is "cool" which is wrong) ("wipe")).  The  "cool" light allows use lots of white in the mixes in the lit areas ( remember that white "cools"...) and keep the white OUT of the shadow mixtures...Now back to the horse.

Mum Study #2

Mum Study #2/ oil on linen primed canvas board/ 8 x 8/ $ 165
Purchase here

I sold a smaller finished painting of mums at The Nash Arts Council show last week. I wanted to try another. This one is larger than the first study. This was interesting to work on the textures and the color shifts. I like the suggestion that the mums are "tactile"

Tulip Sketch

I haven't written on this blog since February 16th. In the interim, I have been working on many new technical challenges. In oil, I want my colors to remain clean, relatively intense and not overworked.
Here is one that I painted many times (and wiped many times) that is getting closer.

Tulip Sketch/ oil on board. 6 x 8/ $80
Purchase here

If I can work this out, then I'll attempt to explain what I have learned. That said, today I worked on pansies and wiped that painting twice....two steps forward.....