Audience No. 3

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"Audience No. 3"
Oil on panel, 3.5 x 3.5 inches (9 x 6 cm), framed
Outer dimensions with frame: 9 x 8 inches (23 x 20 cm)
$185 + shipping

I have a small collection of stone eggs, and when I'm in a playful mood in the studio, they can be some of my favorite things to paint. They also always seem to suggest a storyline. I was amused by the idea of arranging the small glass marbles as though they were present for an audience with the Important Egg.

This painting is available for purchase directly from my studio; click the button below for more information.

Tour of the Palette: Cadmium Red Medium

Note: this is part of a series of technical posts I'm writing which detail the colors I use on my palette. These will be published once a week (more or less), and each will focus on a single color. To read the overview, click here. Where possible, I link to the Handprint site. Although it is specifically geared towards watercolor, the discussions of the characteristics of each pigment are extremely useful.

The fourth color on my palette, cadmium red medium (pr108), is an opaque paint, and the first monopigment I've covered, which is to say it is not composed of a mixture of other pigments. It's offered in an array of values from a very light near-orange to a deep scarlet. Personally, I use a medium-value pigment, from which I can usually mix in either direction I need to go. By the way, Handprint's commentary on Cadmium Red is particularly useful, and I recommend you follow the above link and read his discussion.

If I had to pick let's say half a dozen pigments that appear on nearly every modern artist's palette, cadmium red would almost certainly be on that list. It's lightfast, strong and pure, holds up well in mixtures, and proves it's versatility over and over again.

That said, I actually don't use it much at all. It's completely opaque; now that I'm starting to incorporate more glazing into my work, that makes it less valuable to me (opaque paints actually can be used for glazing, but this requires a deft touch). It also has a tendency to be overpowering. In mixtures, strong opaque colors always have to be treated with skill, otherwise the result can easily be either mud (I find pinks mixed from cadmium reds are particularly ugly) or a chemical harshness. This is true for the cadmium yellows and oranges as well. Frequently when I see a glaring color mixture, particularly in a beginner's work, I suspect that a cadmium pigment is to blame.

The tendency towards harshness can be ameliorated somewhat by purchasing from better manufacturers. I personally like Michael Harding's cadmium red (I tend to think he's one of - if not THE - best paint makers I know of). His product has a mellow richness to it.

So, although I don't use it much, when I really need it, I'm glad it's there. It will remain on my palette indefinitely. Next time, I'll discuss a quite similar pigment - pyrolle red - which I use much more frequently.

Forum No. 3

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"Forum No. 3"
Oil on panel, 2 x 5 inches (5 x 12 cm), framed
Outer dimensions with frame: 8 x 11 inches (20 x 28 cm)
$225 + shipping

I love painting marbles in general, and groupings of them provide almost everything that make a good painting; color, texture, light, reflection. I couldn't resist taking it a step further, and indulging in the playfulness of imagining them as gathering in a civic forum to discuss the weighty issues of the day.

This painting is available for purchase directly from my studio; click the button below for more information.

Marbles No. 15

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"Marbles No. 15"
Oil on panel, 1.75 x 1.75 inches (5 x 5 cm)
Dimensions with frame: 6 x 6 inches (15 x 15 cm)

I was recently asked "Why marbles?". They actually have a lot of elements I enjoy painting: interesting colors, varied textures, striking reflections and highlights. Also, they have a real sense of playfulness; that's what they're there for, after all. Who doesn't have a fond memory involving marbles?

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Walnuts, Lemon, and Wine

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"Walnuts, Lemon, and Wine"
Oil on linen, 7 x 10 inches (18 x 25 cm)
Dimensions with frame: 11 x 14 inches (28 x 35 cm)

Purchase Information

"Walnuts, Lemon, and Wine" is the first of a series of three matching paintings. It's clear that for the most part I look backwards for inspiration, to the Dutch still life masters of 350 years ago. In particular, I'm always amazed at their uncanny ability to arrange their compositions with an nearly musical sense of rhythm, phrase, and cadence. Given my own musical background, that obviously appeals to me in a deep way.

With these three pieces, I not only wanted to take the opportunity to work with their visual language, but also to explore arranging simple objects - a few nuts, a lemon, a glass of wine - in a lively, rhythmic way.

This piece is available directly from my studio; for purchase information, click here. There are also a few larger views on my website.

Look for the next two paintings in the series here in July and August.

Tour of the Palette: Red Grey

Note: this is part of a series of technical posts I'm writing which detail the colors I use on my palette. These will be published once a week (more or less), and each will focus on a single color. To read the overview, click here. Where possible, I link to the Handprint site. Although it is specifically geared towards watercolor, the discussions of the characteristics of each pigment are extremely useful.

The third color on my palette, red grey, is also an opaque convenience mixture. The specific constituents are: Titanium/Zinc white(PW4 & PW6), Venetian Red (PR101), and Burnt Sienna (PR101).

Like all convenience mixtures, this one grew out of a particular usage pattern. I almost always found myself toning down the stronger earth reds (in particular Venetian Red, which is very powerful) with white before proceeding with the actual mixtures. As Venetian Red plus white yields too pink a hue for most uses, I cut in some burnt sienna. The result is a beautiful and naturalistic mid-tone earth color that I use frequently as a base for other mixtures.

Lemon No. 6

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"Lemon No. 6"
Oil on panel, 4 x 4 inches (10 x 10 cm), framed
$185 + shipping

This painting is a member of a now long-running series of fruit and vegetable studies. There's something fantastically rich, elemental, and comforting about well-painted food; it's one of my favorite subjects to work with.

Fragment: Knife, Bottles, and Glass

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"Fragment: Knife, Bottles, and Glass"
Oil on panel, 2.5 x 3.5 inches (6 x 9 cm), unframed

Tour of the Palette: Brilliant Pink

Note: this is part of a series of technical posts I'm writing which detail the colors I use on my palette. These will be published once a week (more or less), and each will focus on a single color. To read the overview, click here. Where possible, I link to the Handprint site. Although it is specifically geared towards watercolor, the discussions of the characteristics of each pigment are extremely useful.

The second color on my palette, brilliant pink, is a also a convenience mixture. Rather than preparing it myself, as I do with most of my mixtures, this is actually a commercial product, from Holbein. The specific constituents are: Titanium white(PW6) and Napthol Scarlet (PR188)

Like Pale Pink, this is a color I don't use frequently, but it's occasionally valuable enough that I've kept it on my palette for years. It works its way into a lot of my highlights, most often as an iridescent effect where the glass or metal is transitioning into the most brilliant central part of the highlight, but is still slightly colored.