Then I remembered the "still life" I promised myself to try. I know still-life can be a little unremarkable, especially when I looked around my house for something to draw - but I had to shake this funk off and get creative again. That bowl of fruit on the counter, started to look like a candidate.
I haven't used oil pastels since I was a teenager, and they were originally purchased for school assignments, so I was never going to master them. Watching a video tutorial a few weeks ago, however, helped me grasp the concept of layering. It was amazing fun to try, and the oil pastels were a delight to work with. So smooth.
Click to enlarge
These bright colours got me out of my funk, and I was surprised to have my mojo back. Creating is a state of mind, and while it doesn't have to be perfect, sometimes you have to shake-it up, to get anything out of it!
Now I just have to buy some fixative.
I love still life-I know that people might not appreciate the subject as much as they used to but I absolutely love it. I love fruit as a topic-fresh food in general as well, like vegetables from the garden.
ReplyDeleteGreat bananas Batman!
I like this work alot-the vibrancy of color makes the fruit look edible but you captured good depth in the bowl and nice shadow work, great work with light too. Its also quite atmospheric.
One suggestion would be to tone down the orange at the horizon line-orange is a warm color and can come forward quite a bit. I like the warm background alot so what I am suggesting is a very sublte hand if you choose to do it at all. You could experiment instead on cooling the bench color towards the back. That might be really interesting.
I understand that non creative funk that hits sometimes. I think relaxing into the mood instead of struggling against it is a good idea sometimes. But working against it can produce quite interesting work too. I do a bit of both-being minful to not get too relaxed. I might drop the interest for another if I do that!
After doing this piece I did a little research on still life. There was even mention of Matisse as a still life artist.
ReplyDeleteHere is the still life link: http://www.artyfactory.com/still-life/still-life-lessons.html
Here is the Matisse link: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/still_life/henri_matisse.htm
I learned to appreciate Matisse a little more, as well as what still life is meant to be about. It's not just some random objects thrown together - as I did, - but rather it says something about the artist, or the person the objects belong to. I didn't realise that, but when I look at my piece now, I see I was looking for something to wake me up from my funk, and of course, brightly coloured fruit in my kitchen was going to that more, than say, the empty glass on the bench.
I can see how a break on the horizon line, between the bench and background, could make the bowl pop out a bit more - not so much orange. I was looking at some oil pastel techniques, in regards to sgraffito - or the scraping back of pastel with a sharp implement to revel the under colour. It also said if you've worked too many layers, you can scrap them back to add more. The beauty of oil pastels, is they never fully dry so I should be able to alter this picture more.
I kind of didn't want to do that, preferring to keep it as a reminder of my original mood, but its also a great piece to experiment more with pastel techniques. I could learn a lot by experimenting.
Anyway, thanks for your feedback.
I think that its fine as it is in actuality. I have used oil pastels and yes, they do scrape off very well. If I remember correctly, they can be over built up as well so taking care to avoid that was an issue.
DeleteI am going to check out your links. Yes, still life should say something about something. You know our prompt to do a self portrait? That can be a still life. I haven't written much about the prompt yet. That is how I was taught to do things anyway.
I am Matisses number one fan so I am very happy to see that you are starting to appreciate his work. He was a genius extraoridnaire on many levels.
Your work actually uses the kind of perspective he used-if that is intentional then there is no reason at all to fix the horizon line.
Your work is about color to me. If I wanted to wake up, a clear gray/green glass is not going to excite me either. Looking at the work of other artists is what wakes me up and most of the ones that I admire use very happy vivid colors.
I am glad you woke up!
I didn't realise how much I am sometimes like Matisse, until I read the blurb at the link. Bright colours do pick me up and there's nothing I like more, than a vivid picture on the wall that "pops" out to say hi!
ReplyDeleteThis piece was just a throw together though. I did enjoy it so it worked. :)
Its a piece that I enjoy looking at so I am very happy you made it:) The links you put up were great. I didn't know that still life ones was thought of as lowly. lol. And the self portrait is wonderful, much more expressive than Monets self portrait-using only a few lines and some shadow-says much more than Monet with all his brushstrokes and thoughtful colors.
DeleteI do like Monet and don't care about the wider mainstream appeal-I am glad he makes people happy in that regard. But his work isn't a favorite of mine right now. I was once enamored but fell out of love for whatever reason-maybe over exposure. still, I have lots of respect for his work.
I really like the self-portrait of Matisse as well. He says so much with so very little. :)
DeleteThanks for all your feedback.