Category Archives: Alla prima

Fruit Portraits

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I’ve done a number of simple still life paintings of fruit from life – primarily in watercolor. Key goals: paint an accurate – and hopefully interesting – ‘portrait’ of the items and integrate them into their space so they’re not just isolated lumps. The excellent Ed Praybe has been our lead in these endeavors!

  • The star. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 12 x 16.
  • Unlikely duo – heirloom tomato and peach, snuggling. Watercolor on paper. 6×8.
  • Green apple getting close with another heirloom tomato. Watercolor on paper. 5 x 7,
  • Bright palette – orange and lemon. Watercolor on paper. 4×6.
  • Watermelon and Lime. Watercolor on what turned out to be some kind of board!

Inspired by the Masters

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It’s a time-honored tradition for artists to deepen their craft by studying, copying, transcribing components of, or gaining inspiration from old and newer master painters. In various zoom classes over the last months, I’ve had occasion to do that kind of work.

An abstraction of a Titian nude:

After Titian’s ‘Venus of Urbino’. Oil on Linen. 9.5 x 16.

An abstraction of van Veerendael’s A Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase.

After van Veerendael’s Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase. Oil on lInen. 9,5 x 13

Modern subject (Cuban art students studying on a busy boulevard on a Sunday morning) in the style of Vuillard’s paintings of women working.

Cuban art students at work, after Vuillard. Oil on linen.

Some Quick-Hit, Limited Palette Landscapes

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In a never-ending pursuit of quickly and accurately matching colors using only 3 or 4 tube colors + black & white, I did a series of rapid landscapes to share with some painting buddies and a more experienced guru, Bernie Dellario.

Multnomah Falls, OR. Oil on Arches Huile Paper.
Marshy View, Eastern Shore of Maryland. Oil on Arches Huile Paper.
California Coastline. Oil on Arches Huile Paper.
Mississippi Marsh. Oil on Arches Huile Paper.

Another watercolor ~~ Peonies

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Our peonies were blooming last week so I clipped a few. They were very droopy from the rain so I propped them up with some branchlets from our Japanese maple. Painting flowers with lots of little petals is always daunting! I always like the containers better than the flowers!

Peonies (with Maple Leaf Props). Watercolor on Paper. 9″ x 12″.
The setup which I painted painted from life. The sun was in a different position during the painting session.

My DC Place ~~ new watercolor

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Here’s a new watercolor based on a photo I took while driving along Massachusetts Avenue in DC a couple of years ago. It captures part of our capital’s essence. Painting it was an imperative.

I used a limited palette of 2 reds, 2 blues, and 2 yellows, plus black.

My DC Place. Watercolor on paper. 7” x 5”.

Informal Watercolor Sketch of Granddaughter

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My 3-year old granddaughter and I were painting together during a recent sleepover. She was very engrossed in her art, studiously dragging her wet brush through EVERY block of color before applying the resulting ‘mud’ to her paper. Rather than fret about the growing mess on the palette I decided to paint a quick sketch of her as I looked down on her efforts. Did another quickie the following day from a different angle; different clothes made her look older. . . .

  • Goin’ for It! Watercolor on paper. 8″ x 10″
  • My sweet studious little model . . .
Day 2, Concentration. Watercolor on Paper. 8″ x 10″.

Quick Watercolor of African Violets

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I did a study of some of my African violets yesterday, using a ‘split primary’ color palette (warm and cool red, yellow and blue tube colors + white). I found it virtually impossible to capture the near neon magenta of the flowers, but did my best with what I had, rather than digging for another tube color.

Fun with Compositions

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Our most recent Ed Praybe session called for considering types of compositions ~~ various ways to position the components of the painting so as to produce an intended effect on the viewer. We each selected two objects and then experimented moving them around to see how many different ‘stable’ or ‘dynamic’ compositions we could produce. We then painted one of them, using our primary triad of yellow, red and blue.

For homework, we had to paint three objects into a stable composition and then reposition them and paint a dynamic composition. Still using the primary triad color scheme.

  • Two object composition – avocado and cobalt olive oil bottle. Is it stable or dynamic? 7″ x 5″.
  • Stable composition of tea bag, tea cup and tea kettle. 6″ x 6″.
  • Dynamic composition of tea bag, tea cup and tea kettle. 8″ x 6″.

Waterlilies in Watercolor

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I took some photos of lily pads while boating on Lake Ariel about ten years ago with my husband and friends Roz & Jim Morgan. I particularly prize one of those images and have been wanting to paint it ever since. Here’s the rendition I did a few weeks ago. I had fun with this one.

Waterlilies at Lake Ariel. Watercolor on paper. 8″x10″