Painting: Mediterranean Still Life

My Pottery Studio - with Easel and Paints!

The kiln is on again today. It’s the second glaze firing, so fingers crossed. But since I’ve been doing pretty much the same thing recently as my last blog post (making more glazes, bisque firing, glazing pots and packing the kiln) I thought I’d blog about something a bit different today.

Remember how my blog is called Pots and Paint?! Originally when I started writing this blog back in 2009, painting was supposed to be the ‘main’ thing I was doing. Ceramics was a newly discovered obsession of mine that I’d only been dabbling in for a few years. But it quickly became obvious that pottery was taking over. In fact about two years ago I said to myself, ‘You know what Jude, I think you’re a potter…’

So the painting got left behind. But the good thing about that was I no longer felt guilty for not painting. In fact, as soon as I made the decision to focus on pots, the pressure was lifted and the idea of painting became more enjoyable. Which is the point after all!

Anyway, recently my sister Sue asked for a set of small paintings for her kitchen: something simple on a Mediterranean theme. And so I thought I’d blog about this latest one I painted for her a couple of weeks ago (I’m sure she won’t mind me sharing it!) As you can see from the photos it’s a simple still life in acrylic, featuring a bright ripe tomato and single clove of garlic.

Finished Canvas

The canvas is very small - about 6 inches by 4 inches with a deep edge – and I’ve continued the background onto all four edges of the painting so it has a slight three-dimensional feel when viewed from all angles: which makes sense I think when you’re sitting at the kitchen table!

So I was quite pleased with the results – and luckily Sue was too! I think it's actually good for me to paint now and then; as a kind of ‘holiday from pots’. The process seems to use a different creative mind-set and momentarily stops me thinking about pots all the time…

By the way, here’s a link to my sister’s blog.

Landscape Painting: Suffolk

Back in February this year I took a trip to Suffolk to visit family. I was brought up in Suffolk so it’s a landscape I’m very familiar with. During my visit I spent some time walking in the countryside taking photographs to use as future reference and inspiration for painting. I decided I’d better use some of this material before winter comes around again! So in the last few days I’ve been working on a new painting inspired by the winter scenery in Suffolk.

I’ve chosen a square format again for this landscape painting and as usual I’m using acrylics on canvas. As you can see from the pictures above I don’t do much preparation. I’ve never really been one for making lots of sketches and plans – I tend to visualize a scene in my head and then go straight to canvas. All I did for this painting was make a very simple sketch in a small notebook to outline the basic composition. This I referred to while I was working to remind me of the plan in my head.

For the colour scheme I chose a limited palette. I’ve also written down which tubes I’ve used to keep a record for future reference. This winter palette is a mix of smoky blue/greys for the distant trees and the road in the foreground, with a very pale washed-out sky. I’ve also chosen a deep purple/brown to imitate the colours found in neatly cropped hedgerows – a feature so typical of modern Suffolk farmland. In contrast I’ve used a vivid, luminous green to highlight the field. I’m hoping this suggests the early growth of a crop and how electric the colour can seem in the midst of winter. A tiny part of me feels I’ve exaggerated this colour just a smidge – but I quite like that!

Anyway, here’s a photo of the finished painting. My experience of looking at it reminds me instantly of the fields and farmland ‘back home’ – this particular field is just 200 yards from my old house! So I’m pleased with the result. The canvas is quite small so I’m thinking I might continue this theme based on Suffolk landscapes on a larger scale: to give myself more room to express those huge open spaces.

Still Life Painting: With Ceramics

Above is a photo of my latest painting, which was inspired by my last blog post. After taking lots of photos of my vases full of flowers I decided I wanted to do a still life painting again. I used to do still life paintings all the time - it was my ‘thing’ in fact: flowers in all sorts of vases and different fruit displays. But more and more I’ve been thinking about using my own ceramics as a starting point for the still life. My first attempt at doing this was back in September last year (see here), but this time I wanted to go a bit further with the idea.

So, I used some fruit I had left in my fruit bowl (which happened to be two more pears again!) and arranged them on my kitchen table in a simple display. Then I added one of my espresso cups in the foreground. I’m a big fan of Bonnard so I suppose the elevated table view – looking down on the display - comes from him. And with no more preparation than a quick sketch directly onto canvas, I set to work.

The photo above shows the basic under-painting. Actually I quite like the colour scheme going on here and the roughness of the whole thing - and for a minute I was tempted to keep it and be more ‘abstracted’ with colour and form. But in the end I decided I wanted to use a simple, more naturalistic style, so I kept going. Below is a ‘half-way’ photo where most of the work is mapped out and just the detail (mostly in the foreground cup) was still to be finished. You can also see my paint box and palette in this photo too.

Overall I’m happy with the result. In fact it’s a picture that works extremely well on the wall rather than in a photo or close-to. This probably seems an odd thing to say, but some pictures come to life once they’re hanging on the wall and slightly elevated. Maybe it’s the angle…? Anyway, it was a strange experience to paint my own pots in such detail – in fact focusing so closely on the espresso cup gave me some new thoughts and insight into making ceramics. So I think this idea is something I’m keen to explore and do more of – especially since it feeds back into both mediums!

Finally here’s a photo montage of a previous photo shoot I took of my espresso cups with fruit from August last year – so somewhere the idea must have been in the back of mind all this time!

By the way, you can buy my espresso cups from my shop here and cards and prints of my painting here!

A Plate and Two Pears

A couple of weeks ago I found a spare Sunday to paint at last! I decided to spend the day on a simple painting to get back into the swing of things: nothing too complicated or detailed. Still life studies are always useful to get the ideas flowing, especially since they’re easy to set up with anything that happens to be lying around the house. So for a bit of inspiration I chose this little pear sitting on one of my own hand-thrown plain white plates.

After a couple of sketches on paper, I decided to plunge straight into painting on canvas without too much fussing with composition. The canvas is a deep edge 16 x 12 inch. I usually draw a rough outline in charcoal to begin with and then apply a general ‘back colour’ with a big sloshy brush. At this stage I still wasn’t sure what the scheme was going to be, so I just blocked on a base layer using a rough mix of blue cobalt, raw umber and titanium white. I find that blocking the whole canvas with one or two background colours helps to smooth the textured surface which otherwise might show tiny bits of bare white through the painting – it’s so annoying if you miss a bit!

As I got going I realized that my mood was to go VERY simple: not only with the subject (just two pears on a plain white plate), but to be very minimal with the style and colour range too. So the result is quite stylized: an ‘idea’ of a plate and two pears I suppose. It’s quite a calming picture with all that soothing green and because of the large blank, flat areas I think it has an open, spacious feel too. Anyway, I’ve hung it on the wall above the kitchen table for the time being - and it may even turn out to be the beginning of a little series. Here's a close-up cropped shot of the final draft.

Birch Trees on the Downs

I painted this little landscape sketch a couple of weeks ago. It’s only small: just 5 inches by 5 inches on a deep-edge canvas. I’ve done a couple of these very small canvases recently (see here) and I’ve really enjoyed making them. I suppose I’ve enjoyed it because I haven’t had to worry about filling up the canvas – which sometimes feels like a large white and empty desert! Instead I can focus on a simple idea using a very simple colour scheme without fussing too much over the ‘finish’. They take just an hour or so to paint from beginning to end, and I think they work nicely because of this ‘no frills’ feel they seem to have.

This particular one is based on a quick line sketch I made about ten years ago while out walking on the South Downs near Ditchling Beacon. The sketch is also very simple – just three birch trees against a rolling slope on the downs. At the time it was autumn so the tree trunks were a lovely pure white and the leaves were bright yellow/orange against a rainy, grassy green. I’ve been meaning to do something with this sketch for a while, and finally a week or so ago I made this colour ‘doodle’.

The paints I used were very sparse: Hooker’s Green, Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber, Titanium White and just a tiny blob of Leaf Green to add a touch of zing to the grass. I quite like the result; which is sort of chunky and loose somehow. I may come back to it and do a more ‘finished’ piece someday – or I may not! In the meantime this little canvas is hanging up in my studio and feels nice and cool and soothing; especially now my studio is getting so hot in the sun!

Small Landscape Painting

Yesterday I spent the afternoon painting this small 5 x 5 inch box canvas. That’s about 12.5cm squared in new money. I’ve got a few of these mini canvases lying around and thought it was time to use some of them. At first I wondered if I was going to have trouble painting on such a small scale: I’ve done a few this size before and found it difficult making a composition work in such a confined space. It can also feel like a very cramped way of painting. But since I don’t really have a properly formed idea for anything larger at the moment, I also thought it’d be a nice way of doing some painting without feeling the pressure of having to ‘fill the page’.

The inspiration for this scene came from a bike ride I had a couple of weeks ago on the banks of the River Medina. This is a simplified scene of the opposite bank viewed across the water at about 9am in the morning – so it had a wintery morning feel. There was a patch of lovely green lawns opposite and the colour of them seemed to pick out the wintery, purple foliage. I’m not sure what the title is yet. A Winter’s Morning Across the River…? Although that title seems bigger than the actual picture itself!

Anyway, I enjoyed painting this one: it all seemed to work this time without too much difficulty and I’m pleased with the result (although I may have to tweak a few bits). I used seven different paints in total: Raw Umber, Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Hookers Green, Cobalt Blue, Titanium White and just a dash of Black Ivory for a bit of depth. And that was it – all started and finished in one day. It’s good to have days like that.

Tree Motif: from Paint to Plaque

(Tree motif in acrylics and translated into clay plaque.)

Mad as a March hare; that’s what it’s been like these past two weeks. March always seems full of birthdays (including my own) which is partly why it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. But in between opening presents or sending them in the post I’ve managed to make quite a few pots.

Since making my teapot I’ve made 4 jars with lids, 4 mugs, 4 salt and pepper bowls, 4 small jugs, 4 large jugs, 2 napkin rings, 2 coasters, 1 incense burner, countless buttons and a small plaque. Some of these are part of an order but the plaque was something I stumbled across when I had a bit of clay left over at the end of the day. Usually I try to use all the clay I’ve prepared during a making session and create a least something however tiny or odd rather than just chucking the leftovers in the reclaim bucket. So I was on the point of making some buttons out of it when instead I decided to do some ‘doodling’.

As is usually the case with these things, I had a huge amount of fun scratching away at the leatherhard clay trying out little designs and re-working them until I finally decided on the ‘tree’ design shown in the photo above. The plaque is only small – not much bigger than a credit card size and deliberately uneven around the edges; in fact it retains the same shape and size of the original piece of clay left over - except for some smoothing. It’s made from stoneware and on the reverse I added a small lug so a piece of wire or twine can be threaded through the hole in the back for hanging.

The design itself is a motif I’ve used before in some of my paintings: and a detail of one example can be seen on the left in the photo above. This painting was from a series of designs inspired by autumn colour – hence the lovely intense orange. It’s a mixed media painting on watercolour grade paper using acrylics and pastels. It’s more of a reference piece rather than a finished work - but the design translates to clay extremely well I think. Of course my next dilemma is how to glaze this piece. Unlike the painting – where the motif and colour are one and the same – I now have to decide whether to glaze in one single colour, letting the motif show through, or follow the motif with coloured glazes. Decisions, decisions.

Painting - Small Landscape Study

I’ve been painting all day today in my studio. Above is a photo of my day's work. Not really a ‘finished’ piece of course but a sketch or study I suppose - just to get the ideas going. It’s been a while since I painted anything so I’m a bit rusty - although after about ten minutes I was totally absorbed and almost forgot to have lunch.

I’ve used acrylics on a small 10 x 10 inch canvas, mixing the paints with just a smidge of water now and then if the paint gets too sticky or dry. A limited palette of just nine colours; the main ones being: -

Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Raw Umber, Titanium White, Yellow Ochre

Then just a dash of these for highlights and emphasis: -

Burnt Sienna, Sap Green, Leaf Green, Coeruleum

It’s a view made entirely from memory of the River Medina which I was cycling alongside one day last week in the late afternoon. Of course it isn’t a view of any specific point, but a general ‘mood’ I was trying to capture, particularly the colours at the end of a clear winter’s day about twenty minutes before twilight.

Anyway, it was fun to do. Whether or not it gets ‘finished’ or something else comes out of it I don’t know yet, but I got so engrossed I didn’t realize how cold it was in my studio – standing all day on cold concrete. So this evening I’m suffering from a bit of a 'chill' and have the fire going while I sit under a pile of blankets!

Tubes of Paint

Ceramics seem to have taken over my life. Prone as I am to small obsessions I realize that most of last year was taken up with making-and-baking pots. And this blog too has mostly featured ‘pots’ so far and very little ‘paint’. So today I thought it high time I blog a bit about painting.

Let’s start with the basics - materials. I currently use acrylic paints on canvas. I usually buy through local art shops, partly because I like to support them but also because I love browsing and need items immediately (being too impatient to wait for the post). I buy the same brand of paint throughout so all of my stock comes from the same manufacturer which at the moment is Daler-Rowney. There’s a logic to this: you become familiar with the brand and their ranges, you get to know how the paint feels to work with - and the paints themselves should be compatible with each other. (I’ve heard for instance that if you mix two different brands together they don’t always like it; but this could be just a marketing ploy!)

Of the Daler-Rowney ranges I usually opt for a 75ml tube (which are the chunky tubes about 14cm long) from the ‘system 3’ range, partly because it’s cheaper but also because it’s fairly free flowing and quick to dry. (I also tend to be impatient when painting and don’t like to wait around for things to dry!) And then sometimes I buy a tube of ‘Cryla’ heavy body acrylic colour in a 75ml tube - or the smaller 38ml tube - also from Daler-Rowney. This is a thick, dense paint which gives more texture. These are more expensive and have a tendency to clog in the tube if you’re not careful about putting the caps back on properly, but they give more depth to the surface where the ‘system 3’ alone might sometimes seem a little flat. I also usually buy a white in both systems – this means when I mix I have the choice to use a free flowing white or a thicker, more textured white to beef up the colours.

Most of the time I use only water as a mixing medium and rarely use any ‘fixing’ varnishes. I’ve tried acrylic mediums in the past but found them too fussy and the varnishes too creamy over the surface which seemed to take the edge off the colours somehow. Maybe I wasn’t using them right? Anyway, at the moment I avoid them and prefer the matt finish the acrylics give just on their own.

And those are my paints! Just an intro I suppose and I haven’t even started talking about the colours I use…but I’ll leave that for another day and another blog entry. In the meantime though I just wanted to mention one thing about ceramics before I go! Today I found out that my turquoise buttons were featured on I Love Handmade Blog. So thank you Kev for choosing them! Here’s a screenshot but you can also click here for the blog entry and here for my buttons.

Bye for now.