Chocolate Eggs

"Chocolate Eggs"

12 x 19 inches, oil on canvas

$600

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Low key, or overall dark compositions are rather rare for me. I wanted to explore the brown-on-brown, and I do like the velvety darkness of that background.

Orange and Cream

"Orange and Cream"

10 x 10 inches, oil on panel

$350

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I've been hosting a week of daily painting on Instagram, and this was my effort for Day 4! Check out the hashtag #sarahsedwickseveninseven to see what others have been up to. Great stuff!

Slices and Halves

"Slices and Halves"

8 x 13 inches, oil on panel

$350

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Kind of a strange canvas size, this 8x13" deal that Masterpiece makes - and strangely wonderful to work on. The reason why isn't a mystery!

13/8 = 1.62, aka the Golden Mean, or Golden Ratio. 

Read more about it, here.

Cup and Ladle

 "Cup and Ladle"

8 x 13 inches, oil on canvas panel

$250

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When I hear the words "canvas panel," I think of those cheap cardboard things - which are great for studies - but not so great for being durable, archival, or really nice to paint on. 

But! I got some canvas panels from Masterpiece recently - they've taken my favorite painting surface and applied it to a masonite panel instead of stretched on wooden bars. Thin, light, and strong. It's the surface I love, but without the bounce. A nice bit of variety for my studio life!

White Hydrangeas

 

  "White Hydrangeas"

16 x 16 inches, oil on canvas

$700

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In this one, I really wanted to play up the darkness inside the glass vase against the light fluffiness of the blossoms. 

Here is my color study - made on the ipad! Which means I've got a time-lapse video of it coming together. Click here to watch!

 

Plums and Lemons

 

"Plums and Lemons"

10 x 20 inches, oil on canvas

$500

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I painted this during a public event called "Studio Without Walls," in downtown Eugene. It was a lovely evening - perfect weather, and a fun, funky crowd with lots of diverse artists participating. Here I am, painting on location!

 

I set this still life up at home, began the painting and mixed all my colors from life, and then finished it from a photo on my phone. You can see in the picture how I rigged that up. Clamps! Can't paint without them. The beret helps, too. ;)

Early Apples

 "Early Apples"

12 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

$800

I've been experimenting with digital painting lately. I know! It's crazy. I never thought I would venture into this realm, but it's actually really fun!

The program I've been using is called Procreate. It's an app for the iPad. I also use an Apple Pencil, for drawing on the screen. Below you can see my "sketch" for this piece, above the "real" thing. I'm surprised at how much this digital preliminary color study informed the finished painting.

Another great thing about Procreate is that it records a time-lapse video of the painting as it's created. Click here to watch this one come to life!

Papaya

 "Papaya"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

$350

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My first-ever papaya painting! It was so worth it to spend the $5 on this beauty, to get to delve into all those peachy oranges. I love the subtle contrast with the pink of the napkin.  

Here's my palette for this one: split-primary with bonus yellow ochre. 

You can click on the image to see it bigger, and read the color names on the tubes.

Sketch to finish - I ended up going for more papaya and less knife: 

 Thanks for reading!

The Hermit

  

"The Hermit"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

$350

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The four stages of this painting: still life setup, value study, underpainting, and finish! 

 

 This is a pretty simple composition, but I find it very satisfying. That grouping of lemons on the plate, seen through the viewfinder, makes me want to paint the whole thing all over again. Something about it just clicks in my eyes. 

Value study, oil paint on Arches oil paper, approx. 8x8 inches:

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"Knife and Nectarine," And, of course, the Eclipse!

"Knife and Nectarine"

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

$250

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My latest piece from Still Life Open Studio. Our next session will be September 7th, at Whiteaker Printmakers in Eugene. All are welcome! 

In today's news, I just watched the eclipse! We had 99% totality here in Eugene, and it was pretty cool. And now I can't stop seeing the ring of light around this dark purple plate as the 1% sliver of sunlight peeking around the shadow of the moon. Art does change the way we see the world - and vice versa!