Brass pitcher - oil still life

I bought this stumpy brass pitcher a few weeks ago at the local secondhand shop. I've been itching to paint it ever since.

I polished it last weekend and set it up today with some synthetic flowers and grapes.

Short pitcher with flowers - stage 1

25x30cm oil on board. 

 © Andy Dolphin

I consider this one just unfinished as seen here. I had less time than expected and didn't get to spend as long as I would have liked on some areas. I'll take another look at it later in the week and see if I can tidy it up a little.

I am really enjoying the "brass on red" series. This is the fourth one so far and I've been surprised by where the red reflects each time. This one was particularly interesting as the pitcher reflects itself at the base and features alternating upward and downward facing surfaces. It certainly presented a challenge.

Small floral oil painting

My latest painting is a 9 by 5 inch oil on plywood panel and will be donated to the Plantagenet Community Art Centre to be auctioned in a fundraiser for the facility.

Several local artists and community members have been invited to participate, with all works presented on a similar 9 x 5 panel. Entries will include 2D and 3D work.

The "9 by 5" has a special place in Australian art history as it was the approximate size of cigar box lids favoured as painting surfaces by some artists in the mid-late 1800s. In 1889 the "9 by 5 Impression Exhibition" was held in Melbourne and featured such luminaries as Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton.

Floral fireworks
12.5cm x 22.5cm oil on ply panel.
© Andy Dolphin

My aim here was to produce a fast, loose explosion of bold colour. I already had the image in my mind before I arranged the flowers in the set-up. Set against a dark backdrop and facing in different directions the flowers look, to me, like fireworks.

The 9x5 exhibition opens on Friday night, July 11, and runs for a week at Mitchel House in Mt Barker, WA. Purchase is by silent auction and, with opening prices starting at just $25, I imagine there will be many bargains to be had.

On the easel - Brass & Bear

Here's my latest still life oil painting in progress. It is the third in a series of paintings featuring polished brass.

Brass & bear - stage 1

25x30cm oil on board. 

 © Andy Dolphin

This isn't too far from a finished product but I do want to get in and make some refinements. I'll give it a few days to dry then get stuck into it again.

I am loving the reflective brass with the brilliant red tablecloth.

The ceramic bear was found last week in a local op-shop. The rose is synthetic and is one of a bunch that came from a secondhand shop, along with another brass vase that will no doubt show up in a painting soon.

My collection of brass and other oddments is growing quite fast.

All I need now is the time to use them all in paintings.

Flowers with brass vase - still life in oil

My latest still life painting features another op-shop treasure. I tried several different arrangements using this round-bottomed, squat brass vase, and finally settled on this one.

Flowers with brass vase

25x30cm oil on board. 

 © Andy Dolphin

As with previous paintings, the flowers are synthetic. This allows me time to experiment with arrangements without worrying about the flowers succumbing to the heat from the lamp. In fact, I can set things up one day and then start the painting days, or even weeks, later without everything wilting and dying.

I'm more interested in composition and colour than the accurate portrayal of particular species of plants, so I have no need for living specimens at this stage.

Interestingly, the most difficult part of this painting was polishing the vase. It was very tarnished but had a lacquer coating that was impervious to lacquer thinners and had to be removed with lots of elbow grease and car polish.

Miniature Chinese vase still life

I painted this little still life a couple of days ago.

 

Miniature Chinese vase

21x25cm oil on board. 

 © Andy Dolphin

The miniature Chinese-style vase was purchased two weeks ago at a local op-shop (thrift shop) and stands around 8cm tall. The flowers are synthetic and were picked up at a garage sale for two dollars.

I used a new full-spectrum, 6400K compact fluorescent bulb to light the set-up on this one. Full spectrum lamps give a much cooler, true-white light compared to other globes. It took a bit of searching to find a bulb but the local lighting shop tracked one down for me for $9, which is much cheaper than I'd seen quoted elsewhere for similar bulbs.

I used the same lamp to add extra light in the studio while photographing the painting and am very pleased with the result. I did hardly any adjusting in Photoshop at all this time. I'm going to look for a couple of lamp stands and get some more bulbs to make that process even better.

I did shoot some video of progress on this one. Hopefully it will be good enough to edit together and put on Youtube.

WOOLORAMA:

I completely forgot to mention that this weekend (Friday 7th & Saturday 8th March) is Wagin Woolorama weekend. I took out first prize last year and have entered three paintings again this year.

Fingers crossed.

If you are in the region on Saturday, or feel like a day out (it's about two and a half hours from Perth), I might see you there. Just follow the map to Wagin then follow everyone else when you get there.

Blue vase - still life in oil

Over the last few weeks, I've been visiting op-shops and garage sales and picking up interesting odds and ends for use in still life paintings.

This blue vase was one of the things I collected. It is a very dark, yet intense blue with a gold and silver foil pattern on one side. The small cream-coloured ceramic pot is one I picked up at an op-shop years ago. The flowers are synthetic, but if you don't tell anyone, then I won't mention it either.

Blue vase

25x30cm oil on board. 

 © Andy Dolphin

I almost never do still life paintings but I want 2014 to be the year where that changes. This painting is the first step in that journey. I started it at 8pm yesterday when the mood suddenly hit, and I was done by 10pm, with a short break half-way through. I had already set it up the day before.

I don't consider it finished but I'm happy with the overall feeling of it as a "proof of concept".

The palette is quite limited: ultramarine, permanent crimson, cad-yellow light, yellow ochre and burnt sienna.

The lighting for this was supplied by an old domestic compact fluorescent globe but I got a new full-spectrum compact fluoro yesterday that I hope to use in future.

400-Day Clock Digital Still Life

I was playing around this afternoon trying to assemble an interesting still life setup using one of our recently-acquired dome clocks.

I don't have a lot of useful ornaments or bric-a-brac to populate a still life, and February is a dreadful time to go looking for colour around the garden, but I did find a petunia that was still holding onto some flowers. Using the still-life stand I built last month, I added a few small vases and even some lemons and got to work arranging.

I spent hours trying different arrangements and lighting, taking photos as I went. With no time left to start an oil painting, I did this digital painting of a close-up of the clock pendulum.

400-day dome clock pendulum
Digital painting

© 2014, Andy Dolphin

Canola oil painting

I did this studio oil painting yesterday based on a plein air sketch I did in Porongurup last weekend.

Knight's Canola 
37x50cm oil on board. 
© Andy Dolphin
SOLD

 Here's a close-up of the brushwork on the flowers.

And here's the on-site sketch from last week.

Knight's Canola - plein air
20x22cm oil on board
© Andy Dolphin

Latest oil paintings

Here's a painting I did last weekend. It's a bit looser than my normal style and I was interested in pushing the dark/light contrast whereas I'm normally playing warm reds and oranges against cool neutrals, with a focus on aerial perspective.

(Angus Evening. 30x70cm oil on board. © Andy  Dolphin)

And here's yesterday's plein air piece. I think this one will be repainted much bigger soon.

(Knight's Canola - plein air. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy  Dolphin)

Once again, the photography is less than perfect. That's a problem I hope to solve soon.

Dreamt up

Just a little something that came into my head this morning.

(Verge flower. 1000x1000px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

This was painted from my mind, without reference, in Photoshop.

Nuytsia floribunda: Oil painting

My most recent oil painting.

 (Nuytsia floribunda. 25x35cm oil on panel © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

This was based on a digital painting I did a few weeks ago.