Winter Greens

 

"Winter Greens"

18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

Click to buy

A bit larger than I usually work! Here's a shot of the finished painting in my studio, with the still life:

 

 

I've got a workshop coming up March 2-3 in Portland, OR, and I could really use some help spreading the word! If you know an oil painter - of any skill level - in the area, please consider sharing it with them. Here's a link to all the info. Many thanks! 

- Sarah

Silver Kiss

"Silver Kiss"

8 x 10 inches, oil on linen panel

$250

Click to buy

The metal teapot is new to me, thanks to a very productive antique-mall outing. This kiss won't be the last you'll see of him, I'm sure! As the saying goes, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

 

 

One Plus Three

"One Plus Three"

8 x 10 x 1.5 inches, oil on canvas

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Keeping it simple! Still lifes of a few simple objects with their cast shadows and a colorful background are a great way to focus on loose, painterly brushwork and edges - and taking some risks with color too! 

Simple, but not easy. There's no satisfaction in easy - and this one was very satisfying to paint!

Thanks for reading.

-Sarah

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!

Radiate

 

 "Radiate"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

$250

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For this one, I did a quick study with black sharpie and grey Pitt pen on white paper - just three values. When you have your composition all planned out before you get to the canvas, painting is even MORE fun!

Inner Circle

"Inner Circle"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

Available through Tvedten Fine Art

A fun, colorful painting from my Still Life Open Studio earlier this week. Just reveling in thick, juicy paint, and the interplay of colors - like that turquoise reflection on the apple in the bowl. Yum!

Want to get inside my process for creating a painting like this - from still life setup to signature? Come join me for a workshop! (Locations from Seattle to Oklahoma to Nashville - check 'em out!) 

Three In, Three Out

 

 "Three In, Three Out"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

I loved noticing all those blues of the bowl reflecting onto the apples - and the green reflections in the plate! Lots of opportunities for chunky color spots. Satisfying!

 

Red Ribbon

 

 "Red Ribbon"

10 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

$350

Click to buy

 Well, I got some new ribbon. I'm not going to go so far as to call it an obsession, but it's now officially a phase. It's just so - flexible! As a compositional element, I mean. In this painting, I'm loving the little arrows of light pointing to the "kiss" where the ribbon and apple meet. The longer I paint, the more I realize that I'm not painting objects - or even colors, but simply light and the effects of light.

The sketch for this one was a quickie - ballpoint pen! 

Do you ever sketch in ballpoint pen? There always seems to be one handy.

Green Loops

 

 "Green Loops"

10 x 20 inches, oil on canvas

$500

Available, click to buy

It's been a while since I ventured out of the square format canvas - thought outside the box, if you will - and it feels good! 

I paint a lot of red delicious apples with my students.  I always choose red delicious over other varieties of red apples because they have the fewest striations, variegations, freckles, etc, to confuse an eye that's trying to discern clear light and shadow patterns. And their velvety garnet color - so rich it's almost purple - gets me every time. 

Here's how this piece came together.....

And here's the still life. Just a side note: I'm actually drinking one of these apples in a smoothie as I'm writing this. Talk about multitasking!

You can see more behind-the-scenes studio pictures like this, all day every day, on my Instagram. ;)

The Orange Ribbon

"The Orange Ribbon" 

10 x 20 inches, oil on canvas

$500

Click to buy

I love painting ribbon! It's basically a custom-made tool for creating movement in a still life - and lots of fun little shapes to paint. 

I'm in Louisiana teaching two workshops this week - still life AND portrait painting. To follow my adventures, check out my Instagram page. It's really the best way to keep track of me these days!

I Hear the "Click"

 

 "Red Reflection"

9 x 12 inches, oil on Arches oil paper

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If I paint until I'm 100, I'll never get tired of the little tricks light plays on the world. 

This painting exists because of that beautiful red streak bouncing onto the underside of the pomegranate from the silver dish. When I saw that, I heard the "click," that inner voice that says, "This still life is ready to be painted!"

Below is a quick color chart of my palette for this piece: Cadmium Red light and Alizarin Crimson, combined with Hansa yellow, Ultramarine blue, and a green mixed from the two. Then two rows of tints beneath. This chart was a demo for one of my private students, to show the possibilities of having  both a warm and a cool version of one of the primaries in a limited palette. 

 I'll be in the Portland, OR area this weekend, teaching "Color Mixing for Painters" at Sequoia Gallery + Studios - you can still sign up for that! More info, and online registration here. Can't attend a workshop? Check out my online art mentorship program.....

 

....And, as always - thanks for reading!

Fall is in the Air

"Red Into Green"

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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Well, I had my birthday, and I've broken out the legwarmers, so it must be Fall. I spent yesterday painting outside in some gorgeous weather at the Plein Air Washington County event, and will be heading back up there tomorrow for some more - including their quick draw with costumed models, which I love.

Here's a work-in-progress that shows how this apple came together. Specifically, how I painted out beyond the contour lines and then used the background to refine the shape of the apple, working back and forth to create the edges that I want.

 

I'll also mention that this was painted with a limited palette:

hansa yellow, alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, titanium white.

Whidbey Island Weekend

 "Dappled Light"

12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas

$400

Available, click to buy

I had a FANTASTIC weekend, making my second visit to Brackenwood Gallery on Whidbey Island, Washington. (You can read about my first visit here.) 

They call these gallery visits "Artist's Salons," how lovely. And so civilized! I set my easel up outside the gallery doors and chatted with the people who strolled by all afternoon.

 Those gorgeous apples came right out of my hosts' garden on the island, and they were delicious! I know, because I ate them as soon as I was done with this painting. Farm to easel to table? More like ground to hand to mouth. But yes!

 

Whidbey Island is so great, and so are all the people at Brackenwood Gallery. I'm already looking forward to next year, when rumor has it, I'll be offering a workshop through Whidbey Island Fine Art Studios as well! Exciting!

Color Mixing For Painters

 

I  seem to be blogging about nothing but teaching lately - probably because I've been lucky enough to be doing a lot of it! Last weekend found me in Shreveport, Louisiana, mixing up a storm of paint, and enjoying some real storms, some serious humidity - and serious air conditioning.

This workshop, "Color Mixing for Painters," is designed for beginner/intermediate students, but I firmly believe that exercises like these can benefit painters at every stage in our development. I know I get something out of them each time. 

Grayscale value studies help us practice seeing the relationships between adjacent values.
You can watch a short video of my demo (on the left) on YouTube.



 Translating those values into color is the next step - and if you're familiar with my painting and teaching, you know how much I love using apples for studies like these! Check out this incredible student work:

 

 

 Thanks again, Shreveport. I will be back!

A Busy Artist

"Three of Two Kinds"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

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A busy artist is a happy artist! And between my workshops, private lessons, a portrait commission, and gallery shows, I'm overflowing with gratitude lately. 

But it's nice to get back inside the cozy confines of an 8 x 8 square, enjoying all the colors in these green and golden apples.

The Primary Palette

 "Cut Apple" 

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

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This weekend, I taught at two-day oil painting workshop called "The Primary Palette," painting still lives using a three-color palette. Color choice is up to each artist - any red, yellow, and blue combo they like.

I chose Cadmium red light, Azo yellow, and a new-to-me color, Maya Blue, by Rublev paint. 

Painting with a palette like this is a great way to get acquainted with new-to-you colors.

Above, you can see my color wheel - beautiful oranges and greens, very dull (but beautiful) violets. That's the result of a yellowish red combined with a muted blue - and my demos of the awesome "Stroke Economy" exercise. A workshop favorite!

And here is some of my students' work. Fabulous!

Black is the New Blue

 

 "Pink, Purple, and Red"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

$150

Click to buy

Here is my demo from last weekend's "Mindful Mixing" workshop. I painted it with - you guessed it - Yet another limited palette! This time I picked Azo yellow (a lemon-type yellow), Alizarin crimson, and Ivory black. For those of you not familiar with my limited palette technique - that's a color to stand in for each of the three primaries: yellow, red, and blue. In this case, black is the blue.

Here's another demo, using the same palette. My "Stroke Economy" exercise: 25 brushstrokes to paint a pomegranate, this time. Always fun, and kind of scary! Did I say scary? I meant - um, challenging.

And here is some student work. Another amazing group - I was really impressed!

Want to get back into painting in 2016, or make the switch from water media to oils? My next workshop is for you! Intro to Oil Painting, January 9-10, here in Eugene. Info and registration here.

Still Life Workshop....Day 2!

"Delicious"

8 x 7 inches, oil on Arches oil paper

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Day two of last weekend's still life workshop kept the paint flying. I sketched out this color study while my students worked on their 3-hour afternoon paintings - in between dropping by their easels, of course. 

I'm sure I've gone on about my love for the color combination of purple and green before, but in case you're new to the blog: it's my fave.

I'm really proud of this group. Great work was made by all!

 

Applescape: One More One Dollar Auction!

"Applescape"

8 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

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Happy Friday! It's the end of the week, and the end (for now) of the one dollar auctions. The good news is that there's still plenty of time to bid on all four of them!

I painted this little piece with yet another of my limited palettes - it's a good one, I think. Cadmium Red, Azo Yellow, and Ivory Black - plus White. Basically Zorn palette, but with Azo instead of Yellow Ocher. Azo Yellow, for those of you not familiar, is a color made by M. Graham paint co. that I use as a lemon (or cool) yellow substitute.

Golden Delicious

 "Golden Delicious"

12 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

Available at Brackenwood Gallery

Here's a new still life, with some fairly serious - at least for this painter - palette knife action. It's an analogous color scheme, and a transition along the spectrum: blue-green-->green-->yellow-green-->yellow. I did a series like this years ago. Bonus points if you remember!