Assignment 2

Instructions: to demonstrate an understanding of colour, tone, composition and the development of technique in the chosen medium. Two choices available:1. to set up a still life in the corner of a room or table - somewhere giving a surrounding context - this being my own choice. My medium of choice: acrylics.
I often find the organic forms of fruit and vegetables fascinating, but any I've drawn or painted up to now  haven't quite materialised the way I would have liked, so I decided this was an ideal opportunity to have another go.
I thought back to the brief for the still life with natural objects and where the suggestion was made of peppers being an excellent subject. Partly because of this, I put them to the top of the list and because having drawn peppers before, i find they have so many interesting facets. A bunch of scallions, leeks and a lemon found their way in as well and seemed to complement one another well in so many ways, in the following arrangements:

painting part finished

I tried a few variations in the arrangement before embarking on the first (rough) sketch which focuses in on a relatively small area, where most of the detail is contained. I decided against this view, as part of the brief asks to place them within a surrounding context and I don't think it was fitting with that. To some extent  I seem to have got into the same habit with several previous still life compositions, looking back at them now  - it was time for a change. Opening up the view, making use of a larger view of the surroundings was taking me out of my comfort zone as I hadn't been accustomed to doing this. I transferred the arrangement to an island worktop in the kitchen, rather than in front of a cupboard door as with the previous arrangement. Now it was placed in the right context (a kitchen) with a view beyond to the work surfaces and objects in the background. In the second sketch I depicted this as basic shapes and angles and simplified the view with generalised variations in tone. When I stood back to check the sketch I liked the combination of relatively geometric planes and angles of the hard surfaces with the organic shapes of the vegetables.
It was helpful browsing through some of Cezanne's still lifes, as I noticed some had a visible background but they weren't depicted an a literal way, bringing most of the spotlight  on the main subject.In my own I think  the perspective of the background angles also gives a look of spatial recession.
The initial layers of paint were practically scrubbed on thin and dry. They seemed to be sinking into the canvas as I was painting. This I concluded was most likely due my not having applied sufficient gesso. The scrubbing technique emanated partly because I was wary of using too much opaque paint, especially in the early stages, as I didn't want to obliterate the tinted ground completely.

The lemon and pepper were relatively easy to do, particularly with the medium toned background beneath. The shadows and highlights were also quite plain sailing, as I had positioned dark and light paint beneath them before going over with semi opaque paint, so there was a luminous glow under the highlights and beneath the shadows.  This was not the case with the onion heads which too much longer to build up. Looking at them now I would say too much attention is focused on the central area - not really desirable in my estimation.
I think I went a bit overboard with additional shadows (violet transparent paint) on the lemon.
On all the objects I included the complementary of the main colour in the shadows and a touch of its main colour reflected onto the body of adjacent objects and their cast shadows, such as green and red in the cast shadows of the leek to the left. These appeared to work out quite well.
During the next session I had further trouble with the onion heads and spent a lot of time trying to get them to look convincing without chalkiness. I tried fairly dry paint on the brush in mauves (or violets) and greens but the result was lacking in substance. I also didn't  like the grain of the canvas showing through, this seemed to undermine the finish of them and the rest of the composition. I then tried thick paint in two tones, but the result was flat and chalky. Next I mixed some acrylic gloss gel medium with raw sienna and lemon yellow and used this as a glaze. With this I succeeded in removing the chalkiness and it also gave some variation and a slight finishing touch to parts of the lemon and leek. I added further touches to sections of the background. The appearance of depth towards this space behind the arrangement looked too separated,  so the addition of  yellow and raw sienna helped to connect it with the rest of the composition.
I did consider using cards to paint at least in part, but lost my courage. Perhaps I will try them for another similar subject. I know the effect will be completely different from a painting done with brushes.
Unfortunately I overlooked my tutor's suggestion on this occasion of trying to mix a palette from a painting that I aspire to, but it  sounds well worth doing, so I will try to do that at the next opportunity.

A cut off portion of some colour tests
and studies. I later discovered
there was a problem with the computer/scanner, hence
the other two images didn't materialise

Later adjustments

Following suggestions from my tutor I:
sharpened the angle of the chopping board making it more acute (bottom right),
altered the lemons' surface, the surface of chopping board and
darkened the background.

Finished for now? - this photo isn't as clear as the one above,
it looks more faded out.

I prefer the angle of the chopping board now, it seems to have the effect of causing the nearest corner to project outwards from the picture plane; dark shadows added underneath help to accentuate the angle further, balancing up the dark space in the background. I added more contrasts to the surface of the board which brings more focus to the area. These elements in combination have effect of throwing the arrangement into dramatic focus adding dimension and depth, whereas the whole area underneath the arrangement previously looked rather wishy washy. 
I added touches of tube consistency System 3 acrylic to the body of the lemon (cadmium yellow/white) without much blending to help give more texture. I would have liked to bring this out more but was afraid it may look out of place against other parts of the arrangement; in the sense that the paint would have a different finish.

Completed version after adjustments

I scrubbed on and glazed paint in the background, - ultramarine, sap green,  phthalo green, alizarin crimson and raw umber mixes - plus white - added to a strong black band down the centre acting as a distraction. I left hints of the existing warmer greens visible in part of the background as they seem to pick up the similar greens in other parts of the composition. 

Exercise 7 Still life man made objects

Although I did consider other subjects, somehow I had a strong compulsion to paint glassware. Viewing images of Morandi's bottles and jars for the research of still life painting, must have got into my head somehow.
When I experimented with a few connotations I noticed the combination of straight and curved contours and reflective clear and dark glass surfaces formed interesting negative shapes and juxtaposition of angles. When I did a few very simple line sketches of these arrangements  each one inspired me enough to consider perhaps using in the future as part of a series. On studying my small tonal sketches I was impressed by the air of static calm the subject emitted  The reason for my final choice of a square format was that it appears to balance the arrangement of verticals and horizontals. On a very dark blue ground I used mostly calming (analogous) colours such as blues, purples and greens, with the exception of yellow ochre and white on the supporting surface, also ceruleum blue and yell ochre on the wall behind both under the paint on the right and in a thin wash over the paint towards the centre to give an impression of reflection. Ceruleum blue was added to other colours to cool them down and help them recede, if necessary. Cobalt blue was added in the same way for the warmer hues to help them advance. Other colours were alizarin crimson, burnt umber, pthallo blue and a touch of cadmium red.  All the background surfaces were painted using plastic and cardboard cards. They were very enjoyable to use and produced a very textured effect. Curves were more difficult but possible with smaller cards, tending to producing quite angular marks. I did find them quite liberating and easier to handle than palette knives.
In the background I had trouble getting the correct tone directly behind the objects. So, I toned down the overly warm and then overly light tones with glazed  of pthallo blue, then pthallo blue mixed burnt umber. The majority of the objects surfaces were painted with a brush as I think this created a pleasing contrast of textures with the background.
The highlights on the rim of the drinking glass where fiddly and I had to adjust and re-adjust it several times. It still seems to look a bit heavy.

Before further glazes

The tall jar was the most challenging to get the tones to look convincing. I think I got there eventually, but not before applying quite dry layers in multiple tones (it looked too broken up and very unappealing to me), then covering it all with opaque blue to try and reflect the colour behind. This caused it to look dull a flat, so I then varied this effect with dark blue using smooth wavy movements of the brush and wrist. I think the cause of most of my problems here were due to getting confused with the tones by following all three of the below:
1. the actual objects in front of me.
2. a monochrome photograph.
3. the sketch,
ie. the tones on the photo looked different to those on the actual objects and I feel now that I should have followed just one, probably the sketch.

After alterations -
glazes

I changed some of the background's colours but kept to the tonal values as much as possible. It looks more true to the charcoal tonal sketch - which I had simplified to broad areas of tone.
Of the two paintings - this one and the previous still life natural objects, this is my preference. To me it exudes a look of calmness and  at the same is time inviting. The colours and tones, I think play a big part in this. The lighter toned areas in the background prevent it from becoming what would otherwise be a dark and sombre  atmosphere.
Natural Objects: In comparison - I'm not sure if I like the colours used - dominated by muted green of the underlying cloth and the muted brown purple of the onion which look a bit hard together. I've also left a hard boundary between the green surface and the light area behind it. Even so, though the objects are quite mundane they have very interesting features.

LATER:
The blue behind the bottles looked quite heavy and my tutor suggested  it would be possible to alleviate this by going over with layers of glazes.

Glaze experiments

Several layer of mixes of cerulean blue, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and white were applied thinly in combination with a little matte medium to help maintain the integrity of the paint. Certainly I think the glazes have had the intended effect; the blue has calmed the deep yellow and the yellow ochre has calmed the blue. The dark red/blue over most areas seem to add some cohesiveness. The pale blue area and the yellow orange in the lower part, were popping out a bit too much in relation to the rest of the composition. The glazes seem to have had the desired effect, though have dried to a fairly dull finish. Of course this change later if I decided, maybe with glaze medium, varnish or similar.

Another variation the above

On this second version, the shadow on the left side of the far left bottle was softened after I took a photo of this one. I followed a very similar techniques as in the first. I prefer this one in many ways: more harmonic - colours seem to balance better especially the lower surface, apart from the tall bottle, which I think is slightly too close to the top

Part 2 Research Point 2

17th Century Dutch Still Life and Flower Painters: The genre of still life painting was extremely popular in Holland during the 17th century. I have to admit that I am not a number one fan of paintings with such a high degree of realism but I can't help but admire them for the obvious skill involved in achieving them.

These paintings usually featured opulent and exotic object reflecting the life style of collectors for example Willem Kalf 'Still Life with Lobser, Drinking Horn and Glass'. This is full of texture and great depth with very fine detail. The light is soft and warm and the luxurious objects have a jewel like quality.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/willem-kalf-still-life-with-drinking-horn

Symbolic/Iconographic (Vanitas) Paintings:
Pieter Claesz 'A Vanitas Still Life'

Painted in warm monochromatic tones, again bathed in warm light seemingly sunlight from a window above, also sugested in the reflection off the glass. The theme is meant to be the transience of earthly life. Te skull represents death - feature of many 'Vanitas' paintings. The watch symbllized time forever moving on and the overturned glass - life flowing away.

Jan Davidsz de Heem 'Still Life of Dessert'
This is incredibly detailed. The objects are arrenged to give a look of casual abandon as though they are the leftovers of a sumptuous feast - the increase in affluence among Dutch society  was due to improved efficiencies in food production and increased manufacture, exportation and importation of goods. Though the subject of leftover food might sound mundane it was the remains of such a sumtuous feast as to appear quit tempteing. Along with the white tablecloth, it emerges from andcontrasts strongly with the dark background. The shiny ornate looking vessels ans plated at add to the ostentatious look as do the rich drapes in the dark background.

History
Still Life only became a subject in its own right early in the 17th Century after the Reformation, which brought about the end in popularity of religious paintings in Northern Europe. Before this time still life usually formed only part of a larger scene.


Still Life was also popular in Spain during the 17th century, less so in Italy with the odd exception ie. Carravagio. It didn't catch on in France until the18th Century where trompe l'oeil was commisioned French Aristocrats containing opulent arrangements of food and drink.
In contrast Jean-Simeon Chardin chose to paint ordinary humble items on a small scale bringing with the effect of bringing their great beauty to life.

In the 19th Century certain continued to paint still life subject, which fell from favour for a while in comparison to other genres. Although many famous artists included still life in their work. The changed with the experimental techniques of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Notable amongst them were Paul Cezanne whou was at forefront of reviving still life as an important art form. His style greatly influenced the development on Cubism. Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers', 1888 is another well known still life example. Those of Henri Matisse who belonged to the group of 'Fauves' artists, otherwise known as the Wild Beasts, loved to explore the use of bold colour, simplified perspective and forms and in many cases the use of shapes with bold outlines.

20th Century
Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso were regarded as the pioneers of Cubism in the early 1900s, though, being great admirers of  Cezanne, they were influenced by his methods. Braque invented the use of paper colle (pasted paper) in a way which went against conventional perspective  and modelling methods, creating a flat appearance. Their approach (like Cezanne's) was concerned more with how to arrange colour to give flat abstract look than the rules of perspective. They would use multiple viewpoints for a subject rather than only one, painting many still lifes bordering on abstract. Juan Gris developed his own unique version of Cubism.

 Picasso - STILL LIFE   WITH BASKET OF FRUIT c.1910

Many more styles have evolved and flourished since then and a wide range of approaches have been tried.

Some artists combined realism with abstraction, such as the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe in her flower painting close-ups, and the more abstract orientated Stuart Davis.
Giorgio Morandi very successfully made a long running and thorough exploration of everyday objects such as bottles, boxes and jars in muted colours. MC Escher was famous for his creations of optical illusions, one such being 'Still Life and Street'.

Morandi - STILL LIFE WITH JUG AND BOTTLE

Joan Miro is well known for surrealist floating images but this particular still life painting, full of  symbolism about political oppression, is quite realistic in style.
http://www.actingoutpolitics.com/joan-miro-sees-the-violent-end-of-the-tradition-of-still-life-as-a-symbol-of-harmony-with-nature-in-western-painting-%E2%80%93-miro%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cstill-life-with-old-shoe%E2%80%9D-1937/

Wayne Thiebaud began slightly before pop art but is often regarded as a pop artist, producing work in a very similar vein. Well known are his paintings of mass produced food displays - simplified to their basic shapes. He has been influenced by both proto pop and abstractionism.
There are quite an array of tasty looking goodies on this site:
http://www.theswellelife.com/swelle_life/2013/01/the-delicious-world-of-wayne-thiebaud.html

Moving along to the present, Glenn Brown - is known for his modern, often distorted and sometimes controversial reinterpreted abstractions of well known artworks by famous artists.

'I do not feel embarrassed at attempting to express sadness and loneliness' is meant to be based on a painting of a vase of flowers by Van Gogh, I suspect it is the famous painting of sunflowers.

William Scott

Exercise 6 Still life with natural objects

Since I did the tonal study on the white ground I have learned to blend edges more where I want to play them down in relation to edges in areas that I prefer to draw attention to. Though I used oils for this exercise, as opposed to acrylic in the tonal study, I have become more used to using acrylic retarder with acrylics which extends the drying time of the medium giving extra time for blending. I discovered these advantages when I did a painting for my daughter before Christmas.
For shadow areas, I am aware of a growing confidence in using touches, and sometimes entire mixes, of the objects complementaries on neighbouring surfaces, although not always successful I  seem to having less of a  problem working out a solution than previously - hopefully this will continue...(see also below - problems).
I completed the painting in a couple of sessions, so it meant I had to apply fresh paint over still wet layers below. Exercise 5 - Drawing in paint  - also in oils, entailed using the same method in places, but I don't think I was as successful there, as I made the mistake of painting over some areas which were starting to dry and this had the effect of causing the paint to sink, resulting in a comparatively dull looking surface. Whereas, on this occasion I was mindful not to make the same mistake and the result was more successful.
Nevertheless, I think partly due to the layers of wet paint I couldn't seem to obtain adequate contrast between the highlights and mid-tones even though I tried to use the brush with very light pressure at a low angle to canvas so as not to disturb the paint underneath, a certain amount of it did sink in, but the result was better than in Exercise 5, I think because the paint underneath was still workable. I will probably have more confidence to use the same method after doing this painting.

Another problem for me was with the cast shadows: I tried mixes of dark green and alizarin crimson for the garlic's cast shadows together with the garlic's complementary - purple which resulted in a muddy brown. I should have realised this would happen as the amounts of each complementary were too equal. So, I rubbed off as much as possible with a rag and tried dark green, with just a hint of crimson. Later I lightened the tone further with a paler mix of green which was less dominant and, I think, much easier on the eye. I definitely still have a long way to go but perhaps this will become second nature eventually. I think it was mainly a case of softening some of the tones with a lighter mix the effect was much less jarring than before. I have left the edge  of the green cloth at the back but I think this would also benefit from some softening of the edges.

Finished

Adjustments made later somehow didn't include the above mentioned idea of softening the rear edges of the green cloth. Re- the the right side of background cloth, I received comments in my tutor report that it misinforms and looks confusing due to overworking.  Yes I could see this fault on reflection; it did look too fussy, so I applied some mid-green, light cream and a small amount of dark green tones, blending them into the overworked area. I really concentrated on simplifying the myriad of dark little marks around the larger garlic. However, doing this caused it to look out of balance against the other green areas - the hues didn't exactly match with what was there. So I tentatively added some of the same colours to the rest of the cloth, including the front edge, which looked a sickly yellow beforehand, not picking up anything in the composition, looking as though it didn't belong. Once I had made these alterations it the back of the cloth appeared to fit in better. Hopefully I have changed the cloth area enough to make a difference for the better. I'm not sure if  I've done enough but I knew I could easily get carried away if I did much more, then regret it.

Assignment 1: Still Life

The options available here were to choose one from a range of areas such as landscape, interiors, still life etc. and to paint it in a representational rather than abstract way. A still life painting was to me the most attractive choice because at least I would be able to control the lighting, background and subject matter without too much risk of it changing or of items being moved around by accident. I was eager to try and incorporate at least two of the techniques I tried out during Part 1, such as chiaroscuro, graded washes and to include both transparent and opaque finishes in one painting.  

Starting with a few line sketches, I later progressed to tonal sketches and colour studies. 

Some people might view this choice as rather conventional and boring, but I think it is a very absorbing genre and style and as well worthy of some exploration as any other area.

Charcoal line sketch 1

Line sketch 3?

charcoal tonal sketch 1

1. Pumpkin and candlestick - charcoal. Pumpkin looks too dominant and overbearing. Tried a few more arrangements with it but none seemed to look balanced. I added part of a circle going off the paper to the upper right. I think this helped to balance the arrangement a little, but not quite enough. 2. Removed pumpkin and replaced it with glass jug, two apples and half  a lemon, removing and reintroducing things in varied combinations. Up to this point the background was light in tone. NB not all the sketches are shown just yet, as I sent them off to my tutor without photographing them first.  3. etc. and Charcoal tonal sketch 1:
 a dark background was introduced at this point and with  it, making a comeback was the pumpkin. With an increasing sense of my lack of real progress decided to try again using the dark background. Don't know why I didn't think of this in the first place - I could now obtain the chiaroscuro effect I was toying with beforehand, much more easily. It instantly added drama, along with the artificial strong light from a spotlight at the right side. It was angled to the lower half of the set up and slightly downwards, intensifying the contrast of tones. The pumpkin  materialised on the off chance, but this time it didn't appear so dominant because there were three objects to the side and infront as well as a glass jug. To vary the texture and break up the loosely rounded forms I placed the tall narrow curved clear glass jug slightly behind to the right side. The pumpkin being only partly visible also seems to help prevent it from being over dominant.

Following this I did two colour studies in chalk pastel, then acrylic. Chalk pastel: the range of some hues was limited - couldn't get the acid greens of the apples with what I had. Used yellow and blues mixed with some greens - just couldn't get close to the actual green, similarly with the pear and pumpkin. They are actually much more luminous and bright than in the colour study. The trouble was, that all the greens and yellows I had were cold. Late discovery of an old greyhound warm green pastel helped but not enough - should have used it earlier. The real reason is most likely my lack of accurate colour judgement with pastels. Had a feeling when I used paint, things would work out differently, which fortunately they did...

part finished acrylic
colour study

finished 

For the painted colour study and the final painting I painted the dark background with phtallo blue and burnt umber using an old kitchen sponge. I now realize that this is an excellent way of covering the area quickly and relatively smoothly, naturally two coats were necessary. I scumbled over the background colour (phtallo blue, burnt umber and white)  for the lighter areas of the background. In the foreground area added a little ultramarine to warm up the blue and bring the surface forward. Then added more white to the mix for lighter areas. On the lightest parts of the objects - applied a thick white underpainting. Midtone greens on the apples from two old green mixes stored in jars, one of which was quite a very yellowy green. Added a little more blue and yellow occasionally to vary the colours. Orangey reflected shadows - raw sienna/raw umber. 

Part completed final
panting

Initially I thought this was the completely wrong hue but decided to leave it on the apples to pick up reflections from the pumpkin and pear. On the smaller colour study I tried some lighter versions of background colour in the shadows and less yellowy green on apple at back so the front one stands out in comparison. The rear apple looked artificial though. I think the mix was lacking variety in application. Pumpkin - main colour: alizarin crimson/lemon yellow used as produces more muted perhaps colder orange than from a mix of cadmium red/cadmium yellow. Cadmium yellow/pthallo blue/raw umber/cadmium for shadows on apples. Colours used on pear: raw sienna/cadmium yellow/touch of white, shadows as other fruit. Some obvious colour mistakes, in moments of madness, were made along the way, especially in shadows, which were not too difficult to cover up, thanks to acrylics being what they are. Generally throughout the painting, with the exception of the pear. the lightest areas were done with opaque underpainting of white and the overlying colours were either transparent or scumbled with both thin and opaque paint. I added touches of neighbouring colours in each piece of fruit and in the bottle.

Final painting - finished
will take another photo of this as
the reflection in the upper portion
is irritating..

Looking again at the charcoal sketch, I think it may have been a better idea to leave the bottle overlapping the back of the pumpkin because the ellipse on the bottom links the continuity of  the round shapes across to the apple on the right. I was overly concerned with using transparent glazes so as not to obliterate what little there was of the areas of white ground at the cost of some spontaneouty. I spent too much time fiddling around trying to balance lights and darks - as on the pear where I used glazes to play down the shadows then had to darken the darkest shadows again and brighten up some of the lightest areas with opaque paint. Part of the difficulty may have been much to do with using titanium white in certain glazes. I have now acquired some mixing white, which is more transparent, and hopefully will help to cure this problem in future. 

On reflection, my painting for Assignment 1 has a few features that I would like to change or do differently if attempting it again:
For reflected shadows  I would add subtle touches of colours from adjacent objects, for instance a hint of green from the apples on the facing surface of the pumpkin.
In the pear I would build up the highlighted areas with white, then cover it with a thin glaze of raw sienna and lemon yellow. I think this would give it much more luminosity. I discovered this was a trick that many of the old masters used.
The shadow behind the pear, on the apple doesn't have much depth as it is too opaque.

I can see what my tutor meant about the ellipse on the glass vessel and the top left of the pumpkin potentially benefiting from being eased back into the shadows more.
Later on I did alter the glass jug and a few other elements. On the glass jug, deciding its spout looked a bit vague, I defined it further. Then on the ellipse at the base I painted over the original with dark blue in as near as I could get to the existing hues to its surroundings - it took a few layers of paint to cover the previous one. For the revised ellipse I used a fairly dry brush paint consistency. I applied small amounts of thin glazes  in slightly varied tones to some of the dark blue background and surface tones, partly to blend in with the new mix I had applied around the base of the glass jug and to enhance some areas of light reflection, while keeping to cooler blues, blending them more than in the foreground, and to help enhance the look of depth and atmospheric perspective. This mixture/s for the glazes was added to shadowed areas of the apples and pear to suggest reflections from the dark blue cloth and on the shadow at the base of the pumpkin. I managed to push the top left of the pumpkin further into the shadows using a combination of the thin and slightly thicker glazes. Looking at it again later I think the effect would have been increased if had also darkened its left side, still it is a definite improvement on the earlier version.

Final painting post alterations NB There is 
more glare on this image than on the image above, causing it to
appear lighter  - which is not the case, I will have to try some other way ...