Portrait and Plein Air Studies

Chicago winters tend to be quite gray so the few days I've ventured outside to paint the landscapes have been sunny days. I am really struggling with understanding edges. These are 14"x11" plein air oil studies.
I am still enjoying escaping the cold for the Palette and Chisel where there is always a model to paint. I'm showing two 20"x16" which are more successful than others.

"Peony Buds" 14"x11" Oil

Karen Phipps and I are participating in the Cedarburg Plein Air Competition and Exhibition. Wish us luck that we don't melt in the heat.

I tried to paint fast to catch these in bud form. I really liked the way the white peonies glowed against the dark background and wanted to recreated this in paint.

almost there

This is a rather large painting for me, 30"x40." It's almost finished. My previous post was a detail of one of the flowers. One of the challenges was learning how to get back into this painting after letting it sit unattended, sometimes days. Normally I try to finish the bulk of a painting in one session but then, those are smaller paintings. Still working on chiaroscuro.

"Brambles"

I call this painting "Brambles" because I kept snagging my thumb on it's tiny torns while working on the arrangement for this piece. It seems to take me such a long time to create a set-up even though in my mind I see exactly what I want. But the objects don't always comply and flowers seem to move as they wilt and open. Once again I'm investigating chiaroscuro, creating the shapes from shadows and light, against a dark setting.

16"x20" Oil on Linen

www.hong-sammons.com

Something Shiny

Karen Phipps gorgeous still lifes on satin fabrics encourage me to try a little "shine" myself. And under the thought provoking tutelage of Michael Van Zely, the satin ribbon slowly went from being a drab piece of cloth to something more closely resembling it's true self.

16"x12" Oil on Linen

Milk Glass

On January 8, 09 I posted this value study which focused on whites and translucent objects. I recently went back and made another painting with similar shapes but used full color. The biggest challenge for me was showing the gentle colors in the vase as well as the subtle translucent milk glass. I thought the tulips would be the problem but that went surprisingly easy.

unfinished - oil sketch

I decided not to continue on this painting after spending an evening on it because I feel I lost the sensitivity to the concept, lost the soul to the piece. I like how everything, including the light, was arranged so I will definitely try to paint this again but on another canvas.
12"x16" oil

still life in-progress

Between temperatures dropping into the negatives and sick kids I haven't been able to plein air paint for a while so I decided to work on some of my new year "resolutions" in my studio. I'm painting on color charts, drawing the figure from life and casts, and working on this larger (large for me any ways) still life. These photos show my progression on my painting so far. There will be a third tulip which extends from the vassel and arches over the other tulips.

30x40 Oil on Linen

Milk Glass with Tulip (value study)

Value studies have dramatically helped me create better paintings. I'm using five values only with pure white being my lightest, pure raw umber as my darkest, and then three other values inbetween. I begin by painting all the darkest shadows first. I'm doing a lot of value studies because I'm trying to improve my ability to use chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro is the painting technique and philosophy of creating shapes from the shadow as oppose to delineating through contours, outlines.
9x12
oil on linen

"Reflections"

Started this as a value study using raw umber but quickly turned into full color as I got into the reflected surfaces.
9"x12"
Oil on Linen www.hong-sammons.com

oil study-Turnip

I want my paintings to say much much more. Fortunately I live in a place where there are several excellent artists willing to share what they know and critique my art. Last night I worked with Michael Van Zeyl, (check out his still life paintings on his website). It would get too wordy to list all the things I learned about my paintings but I will take the time to list the five essential elements for a good painting.

*Compostion

*Value Relationships

*Edges

*Color Harmony

*Paint Application

happy art-making and art viewing!

9"x12" Oil on Linen