a still life

[^ Still Life with Brown Bottle, Pale Blue Bottle, and Paperwhite Bulb. watercolor on T.H. Saunders 90 lb hot-press paper. 5 x 7". 2012.]

[^ Still Life with Blue Bottle, Pink Bottle, and Gourd. watercolor on Fabriano Uno watercolor paper. 9 x 12". 2012]

"There is no better subject than a still life for working out ideas about painting. It is the one subject that is completely under ones control; provided that the materials aren't perishable, it can be continued day after day under exactly similar conditions, and the arrangement and choice of subject are entirely up to you."
- Bernard Dunstan, Learning To Paint (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1970)

Wanting to take a break from landscape painting while holding to formal composition and representation, I returned to the opportunities and limitations of still life, which gave me the chance to put to use some old glass bottles I have collected. They have uneven surfaces, mottled patinas and signs of age and use --- scratches, chips, soiled interiors --- which create interesting effects that are extremely fun to work on incorporating in a painting and, I think, help add visual interest. I feel I have gotten more comfortable with painting shadows. They can be difficult, coming across as looking stiff and not part of the atmosphere. Shadows on orange-colored objects (like the gourd in the second painting) are always difficult for me but I think I got this one right. I've seen painters make the error of only using the complimentary color (blue), or a lot of black in the mixture, which is ruinous.

Still lifes provide the chance to set up an arrangement and work on it for an extended period of time, but I was able to work quickly, which helps prevent me from getting botched up in overworking effects. The smaller painting took less than an hour and the larger one I completed in one sitting except for some reworking of the blue bottle which was causing me some minor problems with the reflections and various angles.