Kabocha Squash and Garlic - A Work in Progress

Today I was greeted to 54F (12C) first thing in the morning and it is to go up to 73F (23C) with the humidity making it feel like 84F (29C) this is just an unkind joke Mother Nature is playing on us before the temperature goes below seasonal later this week.

This afternoon I went to the second of four classes with Michel St-Jean in realistic painting at KAGS (see post on 07 October 2014).















I had transferred my drawing onto the tinted canvas panel and was starting to add the shading details onto the canvas panel as a guide.

The next stage was to paint the drawing in tints tones and shades of grey going no darker than a seven on a tonal scale. This technique is known as grisaille and was used by the old Masters (for more information on grisaille see posts on 07 and 21 October 2013).














I will post this painting at a later date after I have completed the shading details and finished painting the grisaille.

Spoon Gourd 1 - A Work in Progress

I woke up to a very frosty and foggy morning with the temperature having dropped overnight to 28F (-2C) and if we are lucky the high today will be 52F (11C), just a taste of things to come.

This is another painting I worked on from the Still Life class at KAGS earlier this week (see posts on 09 and 10 October 2014).

This painting is of an ornamental spoon gourd which is often split in half, allowed to dry and used as a decorative spoon, hence its name.

I continued with the same theme as the other paintings by having the resting on a bed of Maple leaves and used raw sienna, new gamboge, aureolin and burnt sienna for the background.

I will post this painting again as it gets closer to completion.

Squash - Three Works in Progress

Yesterday at KAGS our theme for the sill life class was squash and gourds. The main painting I was working on (see yesterday's post) had to be set aside to dry so I decided to work on some sketches of a number of the other squash that were in the display.

Since pumpkins are probably one of the best known squash, I did a sketch of one of the small pumpkins that were in the display.

I liked the various Maple leaves that were scattered throughout the display and continued with having them as a base for the drawing.

After completing this one I decided to do a couple more.

Sugar Pumpkin

There was such a variety I was spoiled for choice. I finally settled on one of the ones that looked similar to a pumpkin.

Since this one was more flattened instead of round I did it in landscape rather than portrait format. That way I wouldn't have the sides of the squash at the edges of the painting and a lot of space above and below.














Carnival Squash 1

The next squash I picked because it was warty instead of smooth and it looked as though the bottom of it had been dipped in green paint.

Next I took all three paintings and put in a background of mixtures of raw sienna, new gamboge, aureolin and burnt sienna.














Crookneck Squash 1

I will post each painting at a later date as more work on them is completed.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Squash and Gourds - A Work in Progress

Today the theme for the Still Life class at KAGS was Squash and Gourds; as usual we had a wide variety of things from which to choose.

I did one small section that had ears of Indian corn and a variety of squash and gourds in an old wooden butter bowl. With a dried bottle gourd and a Carnival squash on a bed of fresh fallen Maple leaves.














Once I had completed the drawing I washed in a very pale base of raw sienna and added various mixes of new gamboge, raw sienna and a touch of burnt sienna into the background.

The paper was so saturated with water that it had to be set aside to dry before I could do any painting on the still life.

I will post this painting at a later date once I complete some of the squash.

Today I have gotten my dog early from the Peterborough Humane Society since she came in heat yesterday and they cannot spay her for at least a month. So I have her at home now until next month when she will be spayed and then she will be mine permanently.

Kabocha Squash and Garlic - A Work in Progress

Today at KAGS I took the first of a four day workshop with Michel St-Jean in painting representational art.

While we were waiting for all of the class to arrive we put a thin wash using our choice of neutral grey #5 or #6 for the under paint on the canvas and set it aside to dry.











We had a discussion about what to expect over the next classes and in order to keep it fairly simple we would be working on a still life, but the same techniques we are learning can be used on almost any type of painting including portraits and animals.

We were shown the Charles Barque method of drawing in order to get the proportion correct and asked to do our drawing of the still life and then transfer it by making a grid and enlarging it to fit the canvas.















I will post this piece at a later date once I am happy with the drawing and have it transferred onto the canvas.