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A study in tulips
June 23, 2008 at 19:12 My first art class was all about painting a landscape in black and white. I was stunned at the results. I expected to be embarrassed by my efforts, and instead I felt pretty good about them.
For our second class meeting, we had to bring a photo of a flower arrangement and paint a still life inspired by the image during class. Here's the photo I brought with me, a scene from my kitchen in Belgium:
Here's my first color acrylic painting ever, based on the tulip photograph. Note that it's not supposed to be an exact duplication of the photo. This took me about 90 minutes in class. It was a large canvas, and I struggled with my smallish brush and figuring out what type of background to do and how to get the flowers on it.
For homework, we had to paint a second floral still life. I chose to do the tulips again so I could compare results. Here's my second study in tulips. I think I spent about three hours on it this afternoon, and it's a smaller canvas. I bought a new brush that offered a firmer feel and more coverage:
It was encouraging to see how much I improved from the first canvas to the second. I'm not good at spatial relationships and perspective, and that's something I have to work on. As I train my eye to "see" in new ways, my ability to add dimension to my compositions will improve. Now they all seem a bit flat to me. In time I hope they'll become more dynamic, especially as I master light and shadow. Lots to learn, but I'm making progress and that's what counts.
June 23, 2008
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Reader Comments (16)
I love what you're doing over there.
Amazing how fast your work evolves.
BTW, you mentioned in one of your emails your newfound love for pasta and how you toss it with feta and things, could I have that recipe again please, it sounded SO yummy!!!
:)