Pomergranate - Sold at La Bella Luce Show

Here is my latest painting. It was sold today at La Bella Luce. La Bella Luce is a very cute antique shop that is exhibiting my work until December 7. I painted this painting last week and it was very interesting to paint. I've always wanted to paint a pomegranate and I was shocked to discover how much juice comes out of that fruit. It is a fountain, either that or I got a particularly good specimen. So, I decided to paint the puddles of juice that just seems impossible to come from this very hard, weird, seed-pod thing. I just couldn't stop this thing from dripping all over the place and on me. I looked like I had been slashed!

For my artist friends, pomegranates are like grapes. There are areas, e.g. the seeds, of differing reflected areas that need to be treated as masses and other areas that need to be distinct and treated a individual seeds, with higher valued highlights and low-lights. These individual seeds are also surrounded by very distinct dark shape and hot interiors. These factors make them pop out. There are also strange skin things that run through the interior of the fruit and they cool in color, naples yellow/cerulean blue. So odd!

I want to thank my friends for coming to the opening reception tonight. I have some new plein air items, oil sketches and small works showing - these items are more reasonably priced than my very detaile dgallery paintings--although those are available too. I invite all to come to the show.

More From Trisha Adam's Workshop

Here is another painting I did in Trisha Adam's workshop last weekend. The gerbera daisies painting was actually my first attempt and you can see I didn't keep it loose. I enjoyed keeping the leaves a mass. But, I may have gone too far with the veins and the value variation they create. I stopped finishing the leaves when I realized they were starting to have a uniform level of definition and thus affecting the focal point. I really need to finish the underside of the leaf (the cool colored one), which isn't working.

But notice again the principles Trisha highlighted in her workshop: the red/green and purple/yellow (complimentary colors) composition. The main subject is the full bloom and the other flowers are trying to point to it with the circular motion. Again I hope I achieved a strong value contrast between the flowers and the background/leaves and the high saturation (for the main subject) vs. low saturation for the leaves and background.

Trisha also talked about the notan. Trisha really presented great examples of this concept. A notan is a black and white design of your painting. Instead of having all the middle values you convert them to either white or either black (e.g. you are making decisions as to whether the middle value is more white or more black). The thought being that you should have a pleasing black white value composition (that is what reads from across the room), with not too much white or too much black dominating. I've converted this painting to a notan (well the best I can). Makes you see things in a whole different light. This notan is perhaps my ideal notan. And I like it because the whites creates two nice triangles. However, when I look at the main flower it could also read pretty dark so it is possible that my notan is nothing but black. That would be bad.

Workshop with Trisha Adams

Last weekend I took Trisha Adam's workshop. This was a treat as she doesn't teach often. I love her loose impressionistic style and thought I would learn from the master. It was one of the best workshops I've ever taken. She provided two superb powerpoint presentations, one on composition and one on color. They were so good and provided such a great foundation, I recommend her workshops to any artist. Many principles she discussed I plum forgot or never knew, including the fact that if you use complementary colors as your color design you will generally have a pleasing painting. I really never thought about that before and certainly didn't consciously plan out paintings using this principle, but it's a really good principle. It is certainly something I'm going to think about a lot now. There was also great advice given on how to get your eye to move around the painting and land on your main subject, plus the fact that you should have a main subject (which I forget often).

Anyway, here is one of my samples. Notice the blue and orange color design (Trisha's set up). Really nice color composition. Also you will notice the folds of the fabric are all pointing toward my main subject, which is the blue vase. The value contrast between the vase and the background also help focus the eye. I could go on and on with the great wisdom Trisha imparted.

I would like to finish the vase a bit more as it is too angular for this stage and correct the drawing of the vase. More tomorrow on other samples from the class. I'm off soon to the Expressions Portrait Competition Reception at Art Space.