Anatomy of a Still Life

The set up

One of the most popular posts on my blog has been the one entitled "Anatomy of a Painting", showing a plein air landscape painting from start to finish. I thought I would try to give the same sort of illustration for a still life painting that I recently completed in my studio. The top photo shows the setup--it may look simple, but it took a lot of arranging and re-arranging to get a pleasing composition of objects, shapes and colors. Plus I had to engineer something of a stand to put the chair on, so that I would be looking at it from a good angle. Then it was on to the drawing...

Drawing...

The next step (above) was making the drawing on the canvas. I always try to retain the energy of the drawing in the final painting. I don't want to do TOO much drawing, or else the painting gets too "tight" and rigid feeling. You can see that the drawing here is something of a mess--I was not satisfied with the first effort, so I wiped it off, and turned the canvas upside down and started all over again. I think the messiness of the first drawing showing underneath turned out to be a plus, and kept me from wanting to just "paint inside the lines".

Putting down those first colors...

Moving to the next phase---now I am really concentrating hard, trying to see accurately. I am putting down my background color. I am also identifying, mixing, and putting down my darkest dark, my lightest light and my brightest bright. These will define the universe of the colors I will use to complete the painting. Sometimes this is the most exciting phase of the painting for me. It's where the creation starts to take shape on the canvas!

"Red Tray"
16 x 15, oil on linen
(c) Lesley Powell 42014

Here's the finished product. It's really hard to show all the different reds in a photograph, but you can get the general idea. And now you know the background story. Thanks for reading!