AfterChardin

Done as part of a class in classical painting (i.e., on gessoed board, with hand ground paints and Maroger medium). Lots of glazing and scumbles over a burnt umber tonal under painting. I like direct painting better. Anyway, Chardin is a great resource for getting ideas for still life arrangements. Michael's excellent painting inspired me to post this.

12 members like this

View Full Size

Tags:

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of The Complete Artist to add comments!

Join The Complete Artist

Comment by Darya Vassina on August 30, 2013 at 10:40: Love the peaches and the table! Beautiful! Off the the market on Saturday -- need to try something like this now! :-)

Comment by Betsy Jenkins on August 30, 2013 at 7:26: Thanks, Linda. The background is actually mottled green earth umber and raw sienna. The overcast day and my cheap-o camera made it look gray-blue. Glas you like it though!

Comment by Linda McNeill on August 30, 2013 at 6:59: I love your background colour and your bottles and jug.

Comment by Laura Xu on August 30, 2013 at 4:56: It is so beautiful!!!

Comment by Betsy Jenkins on August 30, 2013 at 2:45: Thanks for looking Ann and Mario!

Comment by mario alberto velazquez on August 30, 2013 at 2:19: amazing still life,, great contrast...well done!

Comment by Ann Turner on August 29, 2013 at 16:56: Peaches are fuzzy with nice light on them, I also like the bottle with reflection

Comment by Betsy Jenkins on August 29, 2013 at 14:27: Thanks, Lori.

Comment by Lori Ippolito on August 29, 2013 at 14:18: Wow!!! This is fabulous!! Tose fuzzy peaches are amazing & I love the bottles..just up my alley!!!

Comment by Betsy Jenkins on August 29, 2013 at 10:43: The fuzz was DIFFICULT. I think you can only get that effect with glazes and dry-brush scumbles. If you look at peaches by French impressionists, it's not that much about the fuzz factor, although that is there in some of their paintings (not all)--it's more about color and paint and light and space.(Cezanne, Monet). I think that's more your style, and it's more in line with modern sensibilities and what people want nowadays ($).

But I didn't even come close to rendering the intricate pattern on the cantaloupe rind like Chardin did. Check that out the next time you are at the grocery store, and then see if you don't go on to the next fruit...unless you are a masochist... Aye yi yi!

Also, if you are into still life, read up on the 1600's Dutch masters--all their food still lives have spiritual meanings. They are about indulgence, abundance, temperance, moral decay and life and death. Fascinating reading for artists who like symbolism and who understand Christian themes. and who want their still life to mean something deeper than just an arrangement of fruit and food and objects. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Sometimes a simple arrangement is all you need to contemplate peace, quiet and solitude.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing more of your excellent still life paintings!