Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

It's time to let it sit overnight! May add more paint tomorrow. Starting to get "MUD".

I did the design on the sugar jar with Ultramarine Blue. I also added a few seeds to the strawberry with dark Gray, with a little Cadmium Yellow. The shape of the Jar is still giving me trouble at this stage of the painting. It's time to walk away for a few..........

Next I mixed a large puddle of Medium Gray, Ultramarine Blue plus Burnt Sienna. This mixture can be lightened with White. The Strawberry was painted with Cadmium Red Medium, the shadow with a little Alizarin Crimson added. I mixed Ultramarine with Cadmium Yellow for the Greens.

5" x 4" Oil on Canvas I have always been captivated by Rembrandt, not only by his paintings, but the concept of being lead through the painting by the light. David Leffel is a "student" so to speak of Rembrandt. I had the opportunity to see several of Mr. Leffel's painting a couple of years ago. I just couldn't spend enough time with them. I would probably still be there! This under painting is called Monochrome, this describes a picture that's made with varying tones of one color. I mixed Burnt Sienna plus Ultramarine Blue to get a darker value of Burnt Sienna. I first toned the canvas with thin wash of this mixture. Let this dry, then sketched in the design with a #2 Filbert brush. I used a soft synthetic brush to lift out the color where the light struck the various objects.

This is todays project, my favorite "Sugar Jar" and of course a Strawberry. I shot this in low light, creating a Chiaroscuro, literally means "light/dark". In chiaroscuro painting, your eye follows the light. The light gives the picture its flow-it takes the eye from one place to another, and the shadows structure the painting.