Still Life on a Cardboard Box

Still Life on a Cardboard Box

Original Oil on Canvas
10" x 16"
$495

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Here's your chance to pick up a neat still life. The photos don't do it justice. You might remember this as one of the paintings I did in the workshop that I took earlier this year. I was NOT . .. . NOT NOT NOT happy with it originally. I decdided to take some time to work with it today and this is the result.

The vase and the plate are basically untouched, except for a few color points added (can't stand not having enough color!!) The shadow on the box was what attracted me to this layout in the first place. If I have to paint a still life, at least I want some drama in it :)

The pears and lime and everything else, in fact were COMPLETELY redone. I love it! I wish I was capable of getting a good photo so you could see all the detail and little notes of color throughout.

You can't really see it on the internet, but even the cardboard has a lot of colors in it. I added a fold of fabric to make sense of the shadow.

I was watching/listening to a Richard Schmid video while I painted, and he said something that is profound if you're an artist. He said that if you have a color that is either muddy (dark) or chalky (light) the problem is that it is the wrong temperature! If you're not an artist, it won't matter to you, but if you paint, let me tell you - this works wonders! Look at the temperature of the color that you think is muddy/chalky and change it to the opposite - you'll be amazed! You just add either warm or cool to it to change it, you don't have to remove it from the canvas.

This is one time that I wish I was painting live, you would really have enjoyed seeing the transformation of this painting.

The original version had kind of a silly putty color going on - I couldn't stand it! The first thing I did was change that drape to a beautiful carmine red. Then I set to work on making those pears and lime completely believable.

I had it completely repainted and still something just didn't sit right wtih me - I changed the background so that the red cloth draped over the box, instead of up the wall, and voila! I love it!

Hope you do too!

Live Creatively!

Liz