365 Paintings in 365 Days #60

5x7 inches.
Oil on Board.

"Kumquats in Jar"

Learning Points:

1. Looser brush strokes. I kept the brush strokes loose on the Kumquats...yeah, I know, I didn't do it on the background.
2. Glass reflections. The glass reflected color within the shadows.
3. Edges. I softened and darkened the edges of the canvas to keep the eye from going off of the canvas.
4. Threshold. I did a threshold, but I softened it to make it easier to cross into the painting.
5. Air. I added an "air" around the jar, especially on the side away from the light to give the illusion of the light coming through the glass jar.
6. Reflected color. The Kumquats were reflecting some color on the inside of the jar. and throughout.
7. Edges (as in part of the composition) I softened the edges of the fruit to give a more roundness...and the ones on top were blended into the background.

Even thought these were all very similar in size, shape and color. I tried to keep them different.

I just tried Kumquats for the very first time and love them!

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Comment by Jocelyn Arsenault on March 6, 2014 at 12:16: Superb challenge and nice paintings

Comment by Pandalana Williams on March 5, 2014 at 9:06: lol! too late...I made changes :) going to post it now.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on March 5, 2014 at 8:13: This is what Monet had to say about this: He said, "I do not paint a house!!, I paint a dab of pink here, a dash of yellow there, and a stroke of white in this place". BTW, I would not recommend painting over the existing painting, paint another one!!! Remember, when the plane changes, so does the value, color, and chroma.

Comment by Pandalana Williams on March 5, 2014 at 7:17: Thank yoooouuuu! I am re-setting up the still life now. I did not take a photo of it, so it won't be the same, but I can study the "light" and make some adjustments, or paint another one :)

Comment by Michael J. Severin on March 5, 2014 at 6:55: Pandalana, you have actually identified the problem ...you have mentally assigned THINGS with a proper COLOR .."the KUMQUATS are really ORANGE AND YELLOW" .....this is a very difficult thing to grasp ...not to paint things ..there are too many preconceived ideas in OUR brains that make this concept very difficult for us. If you can do this, you would probably notice the relationship between the color of the light source and all your color shapes. You would notice a slight shift in value, chroma, edges, and temperature of the shapes behind the glass. You would notice the beautiful warm and cool relationships that are happening within the shapes ..a consequence of the light source and all the light bouncing around ..everything is influenced by that light. When I am struggling with something (always it seems), I step back and realize that I was trying to paint the object as I thought it should look. On one of my still life paintings, I was having trouble painting what I thought was a garlic ..I could not make it look like a garlic!! that is because it was not a garlic ..it was a shallot!! ...the point is, I had what a garlic should like in my brain ...instead of painting what was there in front of me. Another example: a forest of trees off on a distant mountain ....a lot of us instantly reach for a green ..KNOWING that trees are green ...but if you REALLY looked at the distant trees with an open mind, you will discover that it is actually a very grey color. (I actually mix up a black and white sometimes ..the person viewing it will perceive it as green). BTW, I am not saying your painting is bad ..on the contrary, it is quite good!!! .....I am just suggesting a more .."seeing like an artist" thought process ...

Comment by Pandalana Williams on March 5, 2014 at 6:26: well poo....I thought I was looking at it right :P

I will look at it today :)

The glass jar is very light/clear blue/greenish is that matter. The kumquats are really orange and yellow, most of them the same value/color. I will adjust. I can send you a photo if you want :)

Comment by Michael J. Severin on March 5, 2014 at 3:23: Pandalana. On this one, you got hung up on painting a thing ....the kumquats. When you do that, you begin to paint what your brain says about kumquats and how they should look in a glass jar....and when you do that, you fail to observe how the light is describing the planes of that shape in regards to hue, chroma, edges, values, and temperature.