Searching for Subjects

Just back from a cultured-filled few days in New York visiting my son and his wife, and for some opera at the Met, MOMA, Broadway, Metroplitan Museum of Art to take in the Poussin exhibit and wander through the Impressionist galleries, a wonderful Gustav Klimt exhibit at the Neue Gallery, plus much food and drink. Whew!
Before leaving I was really in a creative funk, but now my head is filled with all kinds of stuff, so there will be no end of posts. And--hours before leaving for NY, I got another commission--a sunrise over the ocean. All I have to work with is a tiny photo, so I have to create the setting from other work I have done at the site and put it all together. Will post that, too.
In my dry period, I was reduced to wandering aimlessly around looking for subjects and I show here what I came up with.


Seen Better Days
Oil on Masonite 12X9

There is an area on the South Portland Maine waterfront near where I live, that is not developed. It still could be called a working waterfront but there are a lot of old buildings such as these in total disrepair about ready to collapse. This is one group. I painted loosely, tried to concentrate on the structure closest to me, and tried to suggest a certain starkness with very dark shadow areas. That tree in the distance is really there. It makes you wonder what was here before. There's an irony here, too. On the other side of these buildings, nearer to the water, there is boat storage and a couple of marinas. These are BIG boats worth hundreds of thousands--quite a contrast. When I can get into the boat yards, I'm going to try capturing them.


Windy Day Off Kettle Cove
Oil on Masonite, 11X14

This is an area a few miles down the coast from where I live. There's a small beach here and a grassy area on a point where people sit and read or have picnics. This day, there was a blustery wind so there was a lot of chop in the water. Also, I was facing into the sun. The water had a greenish cast and there were some interesting cloud formations over the island. I painted this almost exactly as I saw it, trying to capture the wind effects and the unusual colors. Really laid the paint on!



Calla Lilies, Pewter Cup and the Mystery Golden Bottle
Oil on Masonite 9X12

I must have had too much wine for dinner when I dreamed this one up. In our family we've had this bottle of Cemballos Sherry from Spain for several generations--I'm sure back to the 40s at least. It has been passed around, but I ended up with it. It is full, never opened and is covered by a kind of gold foil, so you can't see the contents. I Googled "Cemballos" and all I could find was someone on what appeared to be Spain's eBay trying to sell an antique Cemballos display. So the bottle is probably antique. I decided to use it as a subject in a still life and added the lilies and a pewter cup from Bonnie's collection. I have a piece of burgundy velvet so I put that in as it related well to the lilies and worked well with the pewter. I added the greenish background as it seemed to help the gold and worked with the foliage. A strange array of colors, but it seemed to work for me. It was tough to get the gold right--many reflections and there is more green in it than you might think.
So I post these to show there are really subjects everywhere, even when you're in a funk. Don't despair!

When the Going Gets Tough...

Top: "Tea for One"
Middle: "Them Apples"
Bottom: "Tutti Fruity"

...the tough go to the supermarket. I'm sorry if I seem to obsess about winter here in Maine, but really folks, since the Patriots lost in the superbowl, we've had nothing but cold and snow--and ice. But once I get the gloom cobwebs out of my head, I feel like painting again. But paint what? I've given up looking out of the window, so I have to think of something...
I read a book by Dan MaCaw called "A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art." The title is a little off-putting, but he sets forth some interesting approaches for painting. His take on painting still lifes got to me, so that's where the supermarket comes in. My wife doesn't like to drive in the mess outdoors so she asked me to take her shopping. I had a ball! All that colorful fruit. So I bought up some samples that appealed to me and got to work using MaCaw's ideas.
He suggests toning the canvas--these are 8 X 10 linen panels--using an appropriate color (I used raw sienna for these), make a rough drawing, thinly paint in the background and then paint the subject material using colors directly from the tube, thinned somewhat by solvent and Liquin. So for a warm red I used cad red, for a cool red-alizarin, for yellow cad yellow pale and so on. Use the color closest to the subject--even if not exact. Then--and this is the scary part-- wipe it all down except the background. What you are left with are blots of color that have soaked into the surface and sealed it. Then start over, painting the true local color and Liquin in the normal layers, but finish the background in paint thinned by solvent. I found that the dull background helps set off the layered work in the subject material and you begin to develop that wonderful transparency. It takes some time as you'll want to let the work dry when the paint starts to get mushy.I probably have six layers on these little pieces. All of this may be old news to those of you who have painted for years, but I'm happy to say that I am learning new stuff every day, and this was all a revelation to me.
I did these three pieces that way and was really pleased with the results (sorry that the photos aren't very crisp--another problem with winter light). "Tea for One" uses a silver teapot from a service we own. Painting a silver piece is like painting a curved mirror--it reflects everything very literally except the reflections are distorted like a fun house mirror. I placed some white canvases around the setup to try to tone the relections down but found that I needed color in the scene and put in a lemon. Now I had yellow reflected all over the place! The teacup is from a bone china set we have and I was hoping I could show some of the translucency of bone china, but the more I played with the lighting, the more I messed up everything else. "Tutti Fruity" uses a pewter pitcher which is duller than silver but still reflects a lot and the reflective surfaces of each piece of the fruit reflect the others. "Them Apples" uses a really crusty old pewter candlestick with three different kinds of apples. I tried to place them so that they "move" in different directions, each showing its best side and strutting its best stuff.
If you have any ideas about these, please let me know.