The Foodie Series
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| 'Sweet Slice', acrylic and oil on panel, 2014 |
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| 'Breakfast', acrylic and oil on panel, 2014 |
So a few months back I had an idea about possibly publishing an art calender of my paintings. I tried to figure out what people enjoy looking at and I decided it would have to be paintings of food, glorious food!
I had already created a few paintings containing various edibles so I tallied up how many more paintings I would need and so it began....
January/February of 2014 were pretty productive in that I created 4 paintings. The two shown above were completed and finished in February. So far this year has been quite productive and this proves I have not been slacking very much in the art department.
I really, really love how 'Sweet Slice' turned out. I loved painting all the elements.
It seems that when you focus and spend time painting and creating different elements you get drawn and attached to them. You focus so much time on these areas that a little artful love affair begins.
The elements of that painting I enjoyed the most were of course the slice of pie and the glistening filling. You have to get the values correct in order to nail that effect and I think I pulled it off pretty well. Still room for improvement there however.
The blue bowls reflections were quite fun as well. I also really enjoyed painting the books. The first one with all the tiny pasty images on it's cover was fun and instead of putting the title of the book on there, I placed my name in a similar font style for a bit of ownership and kitsch.
Of course the vintage Better Homes and Gardens cookbook binding was fun to paint with all its textures and old worn binding edges. I collect cookbooks and this particular book and the two featured in the 'Breakfast' paintings were some that my Grandmother owned. It brought me so my pleasure to leaf through all these old books and read some of the recipes.
I purchased them at her estate sale last fall and decided I need to paint some of these.
Each item in these paintings are some of my vintage collectibles. I really love old things, especially vintage kitchen ware, glass, utensils and crock pottery...
The 'Breakfast' painting was NOT one of my favorites to paint. There were areas that I felt like I was fighting with.
The surface of the gessoed panel was a bit pebbly. It was difficult to get smooth transitions when blending some of my glazes and that gave me some trouble.
I have also decided that painting lettering was not one of my better decisions! I had to repaint the lettering on the old Calumet book because I screwed them up the first time so I had to resize and get things proportioned better and start over. I did better the second time around and suspect IF I painted it a third time, it would be better still but after all that, our love affair was OVER because I only ever give two chances then I'm DONE! ;)
Now I must admit, I really enjoyed painting the coffee cup the best.
I sure love my coffee and I really enjoyed painting all the reflections so that big cup and I had a very nice 'rendezvous' together! The element I enjoyed the most was probably the reflection of the plate and the fork and of course all the other reflections. I do not know why I am drawn to reflective surfaces but I have joked that I was likely a magpie in a former life! :)
Three new ones in the works
This week I have started two new paintings. In fact I started them on Thursday. So far they are turning out rather nice! I won't go into too much detail because our love affair has just begun so I don't have a lot of juicy tidbits to share as of yet. We will just have to wait until our relationship develops a bit more. Of course it could all fall flat with one or the other but right at this moment, it's hard to say which one I am crushing on the most. They each have their elements so far....
These cupcakes turned out so lovely.
They were delicious too, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, sprinkled lightly with cinnamon.
So far I am just mapping things out with light color washes of oil. Not sure if I am doing things the right way but I am certainly doing them my way! :)
I sure love a good scone and since I am watching my carbs, most of these went into the freezer! I did however eat this one and it was just delicious!
Again, so far I am just doing thin color washes of oil and OMS (odorless mineral spirits). Its more like a water color at this point.
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| Self portrait, Steamboat Springs, Feb 2000, acrylic and oil on canvas. |
So before I started the two newest foodie paintings, I decided it was time to try my hand at another portrait to keep my skills honed. So far so good. this is my husband and myself while we were on a Colorado skiing trip in 2000. It was a beautiful day. My sister in law took this photo while we stopped to have french fries and beer at a mid mountain chalet. I am still working on this and still have much to do yet to get the values and hues right but it's gelling together pretty well. I was a little heavier then so my face is a bit chubbier. I had thinned my cheek down a bit and I think I will thin my 'inherited' (thank you so much Grandma Hall!!) double chin down a bit more. It doesn't matter what size I am, I still have that dang chin!! BUT, I am the holder of the paint brush so I can edit that right out! ;)
I was having a bit of trouble with my husband's head and face but I think I finally nailed it. I had his ear a bit too small and that made him a bit 'fetal alcohol syndrome' looking. He does have a big head so I did get that part right. He say's its because it houses his massive brain...whatever! ;)
I am having fun painting all the little people in the back ground and they are mostly completed now. The size of this is 20"x30"...I think. I started it out by airbrushing most of the under-painting in until I got to the detail phase. I can airbrush pretty fast so i just kind of busted this out by blocking things in. Now I am layering oil glazes on top for depth and details. I love this method! :)
A 'MAJOR' repair job
So I sold the 'My Iris' painting and as I was pulling it down off my studio wall to get ready to pack her up to ship, to my HORROR, I discovered the surface had crazed...and it crazed quite a bit! :(
I was just shocked and sick inside! This is the first and only painting that has done this.
In talking and sharing many photo's with one of my 'waaaaaaaaay better than me' artist friends, we determined what I had suspected had happened. The clear coating I had given it became brittle and didn't flex when the painting did. The canvas loosened up a bit and the clear had become brittle and it crazed.
One artist friend implied it was application error on my part but that was not the case it was just something that happened and not my fault.
So I decided to talk my customer into another painting but she was game to see if I could repair this one as it's the one she really wanted. I was planning to repair it anyways so that's what we did. She actually ended up with a waaaaaay better painting in the end and I gave her a good deal.
As you can see, this is a pretty major crack HOWEVER, it fortunately DID NOT go through the paint layer! It ONLY affected the clear gloss layer.
I will refrain from naming the product so that I don't slander the company but it came in a white rattle can and was an 'archival, UV resistant, gloss clear' made for art work. It's readily availbale in the art section.
I quit using this on art about 1 years or so back because I had had another issue with it..
The lines you see on the surface is where the gloss clear didn't flex when the canvas lessened up a bit. Instead it became brittle.
I even tested it a bit by gently applying a bit of pressure to the back of the canvas and it crackled so that told me what I knew.
Now to formulate the fix...
I needed this canvas to be stable and to not flex at all in order to save the painting..
I re-tightened the canvas to get the cracks to flatten out and then I gave it a coat of Liquitex Gloss clear(it stays flexible) to seal the cracks and allow it to flex.
Next I built a cradled wood panel to glue the canvas too. it was the best plan I could think of the anchor this down so it didn't flex at all and to save the art work. The plan worked beautifully! Albeit it time consuming and labor intensive, it turned out as well as I had hoped and a few lessons learned..
So as you can see, it turned out jut lovely once I was able to affix the canvas to the surface of the panel. I gave it a few coats of Liquitex Gloss Varnish(flexible) to seal everything. Added a tack strip to hold down the original gallery wrap edges, trimmed the excess and painted the cradled edge and tack strip a satin black. I am very pleased with how this turned out.
I am happy to report she arrived safely and now resides in her new home in Arizona!
Alright...I think I have talked enough about whats been going on in the past couple of months...except for my garden...seedlings are up, cold frame up, pea's and lettuce planted... OK, I'll save that for next time...
Right now I need another cup of coffee and a shower! Have a GREAT day! :)
Kath
