Friday 30 March 2012

Pomme Poms

Pomme Poms  
(10"x10", acrylic/canvas)
SOLD
This week's challenge on the Daily Paintworks website involved painting values and apples. I found two apples in the back of my refrigerator and painted them yesterday. As I often listen to Espace Musique on CBC Radio (the French music station from Montreal) my mind turned to the word for apple in French - pomme. As I was painting two of them - Pomme Pomme seemed like a possible title - and that  sounded like pom pom (as in cheerleader), so I combined the two for the title. 

As I painted I thought about how symbolic the apple has been in art and how often it appears in still life settings......here are some of my favourites.....enjoy!

Magritte: The Son of Man, 1964

Cezanne:Still Life with Apples and Pot of Primroses, 1890

Durer: Adam and Eve, 1507

Wednesday 28 March 2012

A Labrador Named 'Hobbes'

Hobbes  (14"x18") sold

This is the predecessor of the yellow lab McGwire whose canine portrait appeared a few days ago. His name was Hobbes and he was quite a handsome fellow, based on the photos I have seen. He has a perfect  lab head and was a delight to paint. I am sure that he chased a few balls in his time - hence the background balls. I think my black lab Molly needs a portrait - coming soon.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Dog Friends

I needed to do some small paintings so worked on these in the last few days. Both are based on photos I took recently of the canine pets of some friends here in Florida.

McGwire
acrylic on canvas (16" x 10")  sold
Roxy
acrylic on canvas  (10"x10")  
Still need to paint 'Otis the Cat'. Maybe next week. I also need to revisit the painting of my daughter (New Hat) - lots to do, as usual.

Thursday 15 March 2012

Triptych Completion

It's done. Here are the individual paintings....
Left panel (24"x24")
Center panel (24"x24")
Right Panel (24"x24")
And here they are together......

I haven't got a name for it yet beyond Still Life Triptych, but I am sure it will come. It was an interesting challenge working on several canvases and of course my ideas changed the more I worked. I started out thinking that I would 'lose and find' edges, but I got caught up with the individual objects and controlling the composition. Anyway, I am quite happy with the results - but would love to hear what you think.