Category Archives: Still Life Oil Paintings

Small Paintings

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Bouquet with Blocks of Color – 4×6 Oil Painting on Cradle Box by Winifred

The photo reference for this painting was taken in my kitchen with the vase sitting on a counter facing the window. The refrigerator and more counters were behind me. When I looked at the photo, I noticed interesting shapes. Honey colored cabinets were upper right and formed a shape – another shape was formed by the area under the cabinets extending down to the back counter. The stainless refrigerator was upper left and formed a shape. Then there is the counter the vase rest on and the lower triangle is the side of the counter which extends to the floor. I could combine some shapes and leave others separate. I knew I could work these shapes into the overall design if the painting. The vase was ceramic with stripes of color. I tried to work with the stripes this but It didn’t work. It’s interesting how simplifying the color of the vase and creating highlights give it the illusion of a gold/bronze colored metal. The design of the flowers and the design on the dark background just showed up in my head. I welcome these creative visions whenever they wish to enter and guide me. Below – roses.




Roses in Sunlight – Oil Painting by Winifred

I’m glad I spent so much time and effort this past year, making roses a friendlier subject to paint. The softness of this painting comes from using a “mop brush” on the painting before it is dry to soften and blur edges. This brush can be used selectively or all over – depending on the look I want to give. I enjoy the feeling of the the heat and sun on these roses.

Roses on Gold Gilded Table – 4×6 Oil Painting on Cradle Box by Winifred

Lots of intense color. I love that I can create “gold metallic” where none exist. This painting took way to much time, but it captures a certain space in my home which I see everyday. The orange strip on the right is the edge of a bookcase full of art books.

Tulips in Blue Vase – 4×6 Oil Painting on Cradle Box by Winifred

I love texture but there’s really not this much texture in this painting. This texture only reflects the way the light hit the texture and exaggerated it. I should have rephotographed it – but I didn’t. Just think of it smoother. The vase was a cream color – and it did work but decided I an intense blue would be more interesting. You know what VanGogh said about blue, orange and yellow. It’s true – those colors are beautiful together.

Cradle Box

I’ve referred many times to “cradle box” past couple of weeks and I’ve been ask – “what is a cradle box”. Above – you can see what it is. I’ve now begun to paint the edges. There seems to be no more small cradle boxes remaining on the planet!! I’ve looked everywhere I know to look – mine were purchased more than 2 years ago. Sizes now seem to start at 8×8 inches.

Hope you’re enjoying this small painting series with me. Only 2 cradle boxes remain blank, which I will paint this week. I could conceivably repaint a larger painting from any painting in this series because I have worked out the color palette and design. Many artist do this so as not to have to experiment with design and color in a large painting. Certainly this makes a lot of sense. I will take this under consideration. (: Hope you’re staying safe.

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Mainly Foliage

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Foliage and Vines Oil Painting on 9×12 Panel – by Winifred

It’s been nearly 2 years since I created both the paintings I’m sharing today. I found this painting a bit odd and it probably is, hence I hesitated to share it. But for me it has stood the test of time and I have no desire to toss it and I toss paintings pretty easily if I cannot enjoy them. In the above painting, I enjoyed the process of creating the vine foliage form, dimension, texture, color and movement. I find it interesting to view. Still, It’s a bit unusual but I think it has merit. Below, I primarily painted foliage again:

Foliage in Brass Oil Painting on 9×12 Panel – by Winifred

For some reason I think I wrongly consider foliage insufficient as painting content – though in fact there are many other elements included in this still life. It’s just the mind attempting to undermine my efforts, as it does sometimes, but I held onto this painting because in fact, I know better.

I’ve been working on a new painting from a Venice reference. It’s 16×20 which takes more effort to paint and to resolve it’s issues. Perhaps I can share it next week. Please stay safe as we navigate through this Coronavirus event.

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The Sleeping Cat

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The Sleeping Cat 12×16 Oil Painting on Textured Panel by Winifred

The painting was completely from imagination – except for the cat! I couldn’t sufficiently visualize cat anatomy in the curled sleeping position. I found a photo and loosely sketched it’s form and then painted it. The flowers didn’t start out as tulips. My sketch had bulbous shapes at the end of a stem. That would have been fine also, but I began to see tulips, so tulips they became. 

This still life painting was as much fun to paint as it appears. I made a sketch from imagination and then painted it. My surface is a very textured panel I created, then painted with a thin rich yellow underpainting.   I mixed my other paint colors with a medium I made to thicken and strengthen the paint layer I would apply. This product would also isolate the paint layers to keep addition paint application from readily mixing thereby keeping the paint colors very rich.  I could brush various colors over the  underpainting  and the new paint would attach only to the peaks of the panel texture – depending on brush pressure.  

Another thing different about this painting is the brushes I used to create addition texture variability. Notice the kitty and the fringed rug the kitty is lying on.  Normal brushes don’t easily make marks like those. I took otherwise perfectly good bristle brushes and cut/chopped the bristles to create irregular configurations.  This made a big difference in brush marks throughout.  I have created a whole set of these strange brushes in varying sizes and shapes.
I don’t normally spend so much time talking about my paintings on my blog but I’ve done so because I find this to be such a fun joyful painting with a different kind of look. Hope you enjoy!

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