Tag Archives: Ed Praybe

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!

Still Lifes in Oil ~~ Dried Plants and Household Treasures

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Here are two of my favorite still life compositions, ‘homework’ painted in oil under the guidance of Ed Praybe. He’s a fabulous painter and equally great teacher. Check out his site.

Dried onion stalks and ceramics. Oil on Arches huile paper. 8 x 16.
MomMom’s Pitcher, Ceci’s Scissors. Oil on Arches huile Paper. 12 x 16.

More Pandemic Art ~~ a challenging composite of personal memories.

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Over the last six months, I’ve been zoom-studying with artists otherwise out of reach. Here’s the final project of a recent class with Ed Praybe — a composite of several separate images arranged into relatively natural composition. It is based on an image of my mother Annette, taken in her twenties, a photo of my six sisters and me, taken years later as a reference for a group portrait lost in Hurricane Katrina; and several photos of our Biloxi home, also later destroyed by Katrina.

To make it work, I had to adjust the relative scales of the elements and imagine a consistent light source across the whole scene. . .

The final image:

Composite of family home, mother, and sisters. Watercolor on Paper. 14 x 11.

The 4 images that provided the underpinnings of the composition:

Annette O’Keefe, circa 1945.
Family portrait at 725 E. Beach Blvd., circa 1983.
725 E. Beach Blvd, newly restored post Hurricane Camille.
The seven sisters, posing for a painting that was destroyed in a hurricane.

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″.

Watercolor experiments with the primary colors

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Recently our class with Ed Praybe focused on painting a wide range of hues using only 3 colors – a ‘primary triad’ of red, yellow and blue. As you may remember, I’ve used such severely limited palettes many times, but only in oil paints so far. It was fun to try it with watercolors.

We did a test painting, blending the three colors before applying them to the paper. Our homework was to paint three versions of a still life setup: one monochrome to analyze the value (light and dark) structure of the scene; a second in which we mixed the colors before applying them to the paper; and a third in which we applied single color washes; let them dry completely, and then painted additional single color washes on top. This last technique creates new colors as the several layers combine optically.

  • Test case, pre-mixng yellow, red & blue before painting. 7″ x 5″.
  • The set-up for the series of paintings. Note how the water in the glass distorts the shape of the apple behind. Neat.
  • 1st version, a value study using only ultramarine blue. 5″ x7″.
  • 2d version, pre-mixing the primary colors before applying. 5″ x 7″.
  • 3rd version, applying successive washes of single colors to produce different colors. 5″ x 7″.

Cuba Memories ~~ Grandmother and her tubers. . . .

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While on a trek to visit a tobacco farm in Cuba some years ago, I spied this diminutive lady trudging down the dusty road, clutching a load of huge tubers. I snapped a quick photo of her as she moved away and finally got around to painting her as homework for my watercolor class with Ed Praybe. Sweet memory.

Grandma with Tubers, Cuba 2012. Watercolor on paper. 10″ x 14″.

Some Scary Selfies

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Took an online workshop recently from Zoey Frank ~~ ‘self-portraits from observation’. It was weeks long – with almost 300 students (critiqued by five or six assistants). I didn’t get around to finishing the one self-portrait I started – just made a couple of smaller studies . . . before giving up in boredom at my composition.

  • 1st composition – too cutsie by half (or two-thirds). Oil on Arches Huile paper. 6″ x 8″.
  • 2d composition. oil on Arches Huile paper. 6″ x 8″.
  • Enlargement of 2d composition, 1st pass. Oil on linen panel. 16″ x 20″..
  • Documenting what I was ‘observing’ in 2d composition.
  • Second pass on the enlarged painting. Not sure if/when I’ll do more.composition, first pass. oil on linen panel. 16″x20″.

I’m now taking a watercolor class with Ed Praybe. He tasked us with doing THREE monochromatic self-portraits during one week – facing front & diagonally to each side. Under the short and specific deadline, I produced these three. Warning – it’s impossible to smile AND paint simultaneously, but . . . here they are anyway.

  • Looking/inclined left. Watercolor. 5″x7″.
  • Head on. Watercolor. 5″x7″.
  • Looking right. Watercolor. 5″x7″