Sweet Pepper

8x 10, Oil on Panel

I completed this one awhile ago. I just can’t seem to get a photograph without glare in it though. Just another constant struggle with photography and against my lighting. I’ve gotten the color pretty close this time however. I often feel the need to take a photography course or at least get a good photography book to improve my skills in chronicling my paintings. My skills are not up to snuff with cameras and I just don’t understand many of their concepts.

As for the painting itself, I was originally planning to work further, but my wife enjoyed it as is. As such I’ve decided to leave it alone and let her keep it. I had wanted to alter the background to be a more believable shape, and whiten the cloth. This was one of those times when the actual appearance of the cloth looks less than truthful, the shapes are pretty spot on to what I had laid out albeit I flattened the wrinkling. As for the color I had only applied the first two layers and had left it to dry a bit.

This was one of my first big delves into wax in oil. The medium seems to (as expected) have made the painting much more satin, and has also allowed the light to pass through the paint in a nice way. I used Dorlands and linseed in a couch and also added a bit to my white.

I’ve since decided to employ a self made wax medium. I’m more comfortable with the bees wax, linseed oil, and turpentine self-made mixture, than all the exotic waxes in the Dorlands. They have very similar working qualities and my medium contains less ingredients and all conservators seem to agree that, “less is best” when it comes to ingredients in oil paintings.

From the 1860’s:

Impressionism threw out the narrative
The Cubists threw out the form
The Expressionists threw out the subject
The Minimalists threw out the paint
The Pomo’s threw out the artwork.
And the Whitney has thrown out the artist.

Thanks to Graydon Parrish over at rational painting for this lovely quote

Cast Offs Abstract Series – Number One

12 x 24 inches

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

This entire series is and will continue to be created using my palette scrapings.

after a days painting I take whatever is leftover on my palette and rather than wasting the mixtures and raw paints I place it onto a prepared canvas. These “cast offs,” are slowly built up over time, using thick layers and knife strokes , very little brush work goes into these as they are often so saturated with paint and mediums that they deposit more into the brushes than they leave.

There is little to no thought process involved in these pieces on a conscious level. They are completed once I feel it looks done or the paint is becoming overworked or very thick. These abstract pieces are truly completed on a subconscious, emotional level.

Two Pomegranate Slices

10 x 8 inches (25.6 x 20.5 centimeters)
Oil on panel