This house is a few doors away from us. I was drawn to the sun drenched blue pots bursting with flowers. I cropped the door to make it a more interesting composition - and to emphasis the bits I really like!
I started painting the pots first they were fun to do and reminded me of the still lives I've been painting. The painting indoors has definitely helped my plein air painting.
I worked on matching the front door colour, I kept thinking I'm sure this is a Farrow and Ball tint!
When I took the painting in I realised I hadn't gone dark enough with the shadows, and would need to go over some of them. If the shadows aren't dark enough there isn't the contrast you get on a bright sunny day.
I'm happy with this little pot a lot of thought went into it.
I rumaged in my husbands workshop for some wood for the pot to sit on. I winched my tripot holding my light box as high as I could, see pic below. The composition is eye level so there is very little table surface showing.
I wanted to emphasis the pattern and painted it first as that's what drew me to the pot, the white and blue combination and the Japanese feel to it. (see below)
Painting a light object like this it works well to paint on a coloured surface, so I painted the board using acrylics (as they are fast drying) last night ready for today.
Once I had finished the pot the original warm terracotta background worked so I painted over it in oils, a darker tone which makes the pot jump out, also has the warm and cool colour element.
I finished my colour studies this morning and wanted to use some of the lovely pinks and violets I had mixed. So this is the result of it! I didn't have many pink pots or jugs in my supply so adapted what I had, see photo below to what they really looked like!
They had unusual shaped spouts which made it interesting to paint. I also accenturated the size and shapes of the jugs to make a more pleasing composition. The main colours I used are: Magenta and Ultramarine with a little Cadmium Yellow Pale.
I like the chunky earthen ware feel to these pots and not colours I usually choose.
They not fine china so I painted them quite loose and brushy. I decided on the blue background as a last minute after I'd painted the inside of the yellow pot, it seamed a good colour base to expand on.
Happy to make it to 50 paintings! Getting quite a collection in my studio now, I'm enjoying the variety of subjects and still the challenge of painting them :-)
I love these colours! I decided to harmonise with a similar colour background. The composition isn't one I usually do from above, I will experiment from the side view too.
I used a colour I haven't tried before 'Phthalo Blue' a very strong turquoise great for these sorts of colours.
I'm pleased with the loosenes of the brush work, not being to fussy but still getting some finishing detail.
