Friday

New still life painting with cat

Still Life with cat, 20" x 24" oil painting on canvas

I was inspired yesterday after watching Susan Carlin's on-line painting demonstration. She's a wonderful portrait artist and she posted a painting she had done in a few hours with lots of paint and big brushes. It was lovely and reminded me of my love of Van Gogh. I love his sense of color and brush strokes and the way he piles on the paint with such abandon. I'm always conscious of the cost of art supplies and tend to go the conservative route and paint thinly. Another inspiration for painting is a blog I came across recently called Following the Masters. The current challenge is to paint a picture of flowers inspired by your favorite artist. Yesterday I said what the heck, you only live once, what am I saving this for, etc. I squeezed out large piles of color and went at it. While I can't say it's anywhere near a Van Gogh, I did learn something about brush strokes. I need to practice, practice, practice. And without scraping off, too many corrections on thickly applied oil paints turn quickly to mud.

4 comments:

r garriott said...

You did a lovely job with the challenge. I almost missed the cat, but I love how mysteriously he sits in the background!

Gayle Bell said...

Thank you so much for the compliment. I checked out your blogs and was impressed with your lovely flower paintings and the wealth of info on your photoshop blog. I'll have to keep up with both of them!

FitFoodieMegha said...

Woowww Gayle this is a wonderful painting..I liked the flowerpot and the beautiful color of the flowers. Nice work on shadows as well...:)

Color Pencil Drawing: Lord Krishna with his mother

Gayle Bell said...

Thank you Megha. I enjoyed the tour of your blog--great drawings and paintings.