What a Blessing....Thank You!

Before I share my newest still life work in progress, I'd like to take this lovely Sunday morning (in Denver) to count my blessings...you! I appreciate each and every one of my followers on this blog. I find so little time to be able to respond individually to your kind remarks and encouragement. Please know you keep me motivated and inspired to paint!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Photo of my still life set-up...I am working from the live set-up,
so this viewpoint is a bit different from my painting


Drawing and starting to get the darks in

"Cuties and Lace" 11 x 14" Pastel Work in Progress
First layers of color, adjusting values, and correcting drawing

I started this painting on Friday, setting up the still life, a process which should never be shortchanged. I could have spent more time on this but I was in a hurry to get started. Can you relate to that??

The lighting on this is warm, so my shadows will be cooler (than warmer).

My concept for this is "color" as outlined in "Oil Painting Secrets of a Master" about David Leffel's approach to painting. The idea being the orange color of the cuties starts on the left side and grows in intensity across the painting plane until you hit the focal point which is the cutie leaning against the plate and in front of the pitcher. OK, understanding what I'm supposed to do and accomplishing it are two different things here, but I am learning through lots of practice and reading. David says "..you can only paint to the level at which you understand.." (I think the quote is close enough.)

I decided to paint the cloth underneath the lace first, paying attention to how the light hits it through the lace. I could have done the reverse...paint the color of the lace and then paint the dark holes of the cloth. However, one thing Deb has always said is "you paint up". In other words, you start with your darks and work your way towards the light. Just like you start with harder pastels, in general, and work toward the softer pastels. This is the reason I have lots of Ludwig soft "whites" to make sure the soft whites will go over the harder darks.

My challenges for this painting:

- keeping the left side cuties from stopping the flow by lowering their intensity compared to the focal point
- the obvious, painting the lace..both the pattern and the perspective (which is already bugging me)
- expanding the right side of the painting ever so slightly (I always seem to crowd the right side)
- the drawing challenge of the flutes in the pitcher and saucer (I have painted this before and know it's a pretty good challenge)

I'm sure this list will grow as I go along ;-)