"The Pumpkin's Fate"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

The nice thing about painting food is that you can usually eat it afterwards. The featured slice of pumpkin pie made a good (and seasonal) post-painting afternoon snack.

 

On the subject of seasonal pleasures, I just realized that I have yet to buy my annual treat of Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, a.k.a. The Best Pumpkin Ale Ever, Full Stop. This is a tragic oversight that I must remedy as soon as possible.

"Vase, Glass, And Mango"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I thought I would try a little more traditional still-life setup on the smaller daily painting format. These are some thrift store items and a Brazilian mango (according to the label) that I picked up at the store the other day. I didn't really have anything special in mind for this one, I just put the items together, picked up the brush, and went at it.

"Red Plum Pair" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

Commissioned to go along with two other plum paintings previously sold. I'm pretty sure I bought the last four red plums available on this side of Dallas!

"Fall On Blue" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I had some reservations about posting this one, as it's a bit of an experiment. I was aiming to keep color as clean and pure as possible, and at the same time, use only a single 1/2" flat brush to do the entire painting. The "blue" is actually a beach towel, which is not very "fall", but there were some oranges and yellows in there that worked as a background pattern. I had to put everything on the floor down by my ankle to get this POV, which meant a bit of extra work keeping the cats out of the setup.

"Goose And Apple"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I must apologize for the uncreative title. I figured the best thing to do was to stay descriptive, and keep it simple! I picked this goose figurine up at a local thrift store along with a bunch of other props and items for still-life paintings. It's amazing how much random stuff you can get for $7.83 if you know where to dig.

 

I've been wanting to deviate from fruit a bit, and I don't want to over-do the "apples" thing, but there were some really nice big ones available with all sorts of interesting shapes and patterns. I can't help myself. And they're delicious too... Honey Crisp for the win!

"Autumn Owl"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

The last couple of dailies were somewhat experimental in nature, and I didn't find the results acceptable (hence the lack of updates). Here I've returned to my old favorite owl-shaped candle holder, and some "fall fruits".

 

This one was really tough to photograph. Rainy weather today means bad light for photographs in my apartment, and I put a lot of subtle darks into this painting, which are a bit difficult for the camera to pick up on a good day. I ended up photographing it under my work light, and doing more than the usual amount of digital adjustments.

"Loving Pear" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

Another one from the pear backlog.

"Tilted Apple" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

Attack of the Uncreative Title! The apple really is tilted. The bottom is flat but the body of the apple slants at an angle. It was purchased as an ingredient for a crock pot curry, but I demanded that it be spared - at least until I could paint it.

"Ghost Pumpkin" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I was thinking of the opening scene of Hamlet while I was arranging the pumpkins.

"Reclining Pear"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

Sorry for the posting hiatus. I have built up a little bit of a backlog (which is a good thing), so here is the first painting on my newly constructed setup, painted last week.

 

I've had a mind to try painting pears for a while, but the offerings at the grocery store were ugly or bruised, until last week. One of these days I'm going to be admonished by store staff for manhandling fruit, as I like to pick and poke through produce in search of artistically interesting examples. This is the second painting I did of this particular pear, which was the only one in the pile with a leafy stem. I didn't much like the first one, but this one is acceptable.

 

Sadly, this painting also marks the death of my second Escoda sable detailing brush. They start out so lovely and satisfying to use, but it seems like small sables can't survive the daily oil painting routine for long. I was not ready to make another internet re-supply order, but a small touch-up brush is something I consider a necessity, so I made a quick hop down to the local art $upply $tore and picked up a Princeton 4000R size 0. So far, it shows no signs of unhappiness with its duties. I'm turning into a fan of Princeton brushes.

Overhaul underway, be right back

I'm building myself a new light box and making some changes to my second bedroom studio space, among other things. Will be back with new work and a sale on the older work later in the week. If you're interested in anything on the blog, drop me a line:

tdaniels at gmail dot com

Post-fishing-weekend re-org

 

I'm back from a weekend at Lake Fork. I'm doing some major re-organizing behind the scenes here, and will have new work up by the weekend, at my newly purcha$$$ed eBay store. Please forgive dead links in the meantime; I have to shuffle a lot of things around.

 

With Erik Tiemens and Nathan Fowkes in mind, I made plans to try some gouache & watercolor sketching while out and about around the lake. I've never seriously tried the combination before, so it was all new - new environment, new brushes, new moleskine, new paints, new technique.

 

 

One of the views from the dock near the RV park

 

 

Trees in a small park across the causeway, eastern half of the lake

 

I didn't learn until after we got there that Lake Fork is one of the best bass fishing lakes in Texas. I didn't have any luck, and I felt compelled to quickly give up fishing pole for paint and sketchbook, but the lady of the apartment caught two small fish (both too small to eat, lucky for them):

 

 

 

The sunsets out there are lovely, and the abundance of birds was startling. The lake is quite large and gives an impression of emptiness in the photos, but it felt very active and rich in wildlife (especially bugs - all those fish have to eat something). Saturday evening's sunset looked like an ideal Japanese painting, with black horizon, hinomaru-red sun, and wading birds flying across the evening sky. I chose to put the paints down and enjoy it rather than try to capture it in situ, but I may work up something representative later.