Still Life With A Knife

oil 8x8 inches magnify/purchase info Here's another painting I reworked. Back in October I painted this as a demonstration for the Tustin Art Association. At the time, I was in the midst of an unexpected long recovery from oral surgery. Turns out I don't paint well with jaw pain. Go figure. Originally I had an empty glass bottle in the back to add a vertical going off the top edge. It just didn't work, so I painted it out, and fiddled with a few edges here and there. If you like it, check out the price. Very low for an 8x8.

Mandarin On Edge -sold

oil 6x6 inches
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Monday morning my sister-in-law, Linda came from La Quinta. She brought two friends who wanted to watch me paint. The four of us squeezed into my little paint cave and I did this still life. After the fun and some purchases, they treated me to lunch at Islands. What a nice morning!

Quality Edge

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
The next in my series of practicing whites. While painting I consider my edge quality, hard or soft, and this is one of my Cutco knives...so the title plays with both those ideas. I liked the crisp contrast of whites with the dark handle and shadows. This painting is available at Vander Molen Fine Art, Arcadia, CA

The Big Apple -sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
Sorry I went off the radar for a few days... I was running Camp Gramma for three of my adorable grandchildren. I hope to get back to painting today. Above is the first painting in my series on whites done a few weeks ago.

On The Edge-sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

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There's something soothing about green. In this painting I used two different green fields to break up the negative space. The fruits all seem to be following the line between the two greens and heading toward the knife, hence the title. I'm finding that in painting pears, I have to make the bottom shadow side darker than it appears in life in order to sit that pear down firmly in my painting.

Lemons On Cutting Board sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
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Yesterday I wiped out a painting after working on it for about three hours. Frustrating! I should have surrendered sooner. For a while, I thought this one today would be a wipe out too, but I'm happy with it after all. I liked the three "dots" and the yellow reflections in handle and blade. Though I hadn't planned on it, I had to add a suggestion of woodgrain to keep the knife from "floating." Lord knows, we don't need any floating knives.