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Florence Italy – In the Valley
Tag Archives: winifred whitfield
My Baby Brother
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Sunflowers – Let Me Count the Ways
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In Shadow
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Bowl of Fruit
Still lifes are not particularly exciting for me to paint – though I paint them. Painting still lifes is good practice, however, because of the varying shapes, textures and colors involved, along with the challenge of complex composition. Painting still lifes actually helps in painting portraits. In fact, painting in any style assist with painting any other style. You can look at this painting and see all the separate elements I had to paint. There were decisions and layers of brush strokes involved with each item.
I’m working up to the 10,000 paintings said to be necessary before one can expect to claim “mastery” in oil painting. I’m still under 1000 paintings, so I have a ways to go. It’s time for another portrait. Have a wonderful weekend. Winifred
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Colorful Portrait 3
I’ve attempted a similar style of painting a couple timed in the past. They were smaller – 5×7 and were good – however, I felt I’d only been lucky and felt no confidence in my ability to create such paintings. This painting represents a step forward for me. I certainly feel encouraged to try more. Next time, I hope to use fewer strokes and to make every stroke count.
I said, I’d see you on the other side of the election. Well, we have a new President. As you know, he is not the one I wanted. Courts have determined him to be a RAPIST and a convicted criminal. He’s been twice impeached and documented as a prolific liar and fraudster. Regrettably, e’s completely lacking in character. But, it is what it is. I won’t mention him again – he’s not worth it. I’m here to share my paintings.
Have a great weekend. Winifred
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MEL
I actually enjoyed creating this painting and it’s emotional content. There was no appreciable suffering during the painting process this time – as is certainly the case with many of my paintings. I even was able to create some energetic brushstrokes in her hair, background and attire. No doubt. it’s a function of experience and growing confidence in brush and paint handling. I am determined to be able to include some level of abstraction into realism. I think the combination is pretty wonderful.
Well, we have a big week ahead. See you on the other side. Have a great weekend. Winifred
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Little Round Things
What a journey this painting has had. It was intended as a little practice exercise – to paint something I would not particularly care about. To allow that the painting would not be “precious” as they say, allows one to be more comfortable experimenting – such that what or how one paints just doesn’t matter. So that was my mindset which carried throughout the painting process – as you will see. Below is the reference image – a little yellow plate with grapes on a brown surface.
Below is a crop from my initial painting of the plate and grapes.
When I stood back to look, it was apparent I was doing my same old realism and I didn’t want to do that. So, I scraped the paint off the plate. I think it’s rather pretty but I wanted something different from just pretty. It’s getting less hard for me to to paint something relatively well (the plate) and then decide – NO – scrape it off and try again. I maintained the grapes throughout. Below was the next attempt.
Above, I painted over plate and the background and started adding random colors. Again, I decided NO and scraped off the paint. Then I decided I would approach it differently. I would find my little yellow plate and set up what would be a background and table covering and work from this structure. Below is that photo of what would be my background reference image:
Above: I thought that having this reference would assist me with what I wanted to accomplish. I found a piece of stiff cloth I like to use because it will hold stiff folds. It’s actually a piece of house painters floor protective covering which has vinyl on one side. I set the little yellow plate on it – no grapes – and I photographed the plate against the cloth which gave me a reference background and table covering. Below was my first attempt using the reference to form my background.
Above: Rather interesting colors and shapes but not what I wanted. Here again, the plate shape is painted with a sense of realism reflecting of the original shape than I wanted, if not the color. Thus, I’m heading down the wrong path again. I struggle with this. Below, I try again.
Above: Not so bad except that the color turned to mud because I hadn’t sufficiently dried nor scraped off the tan/gold paint you see before it. This time I would allow it to dry over night and reapply cooler paint colors during my next paint session. Below- the final PERHAPS.
In actuality, the light colors in this painting are very neutral – not so warm hued as they appear in this photo of the painting. (It could just be my screen.) I intensified the grape color, added deeper reds to the grapes and added a couple additional grapes as I always enjoy doing. I admit I never took the grape stems too seriously. I succeeded in a looser background with lots of texture, random abstract strokes and lots of energy. The background is not necessarily pretty but it’s not BORING. That’s important to me. To have energy and not to be boring was my only objective for this little exercise – which turned out NOT to be such a “little” exercise. In keeping with the intention to not make this painting “precious”, I’m going to sand down the background as soon as this painting dries more. I have found that the result of sanding a painting during the painting process or after, most often enhances the painting. It allows some of the underlying colors to come through and it affects the edges in some way. I expect it to become more interesting. I’m not sure what will happen. If the results are particularly interesting I will show you. If you actually made it this far – thank you for sharing this journey with me. Winifred
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Decorating the Background
This past week, rather than creating a completely new painting, I decided to experiment on an existing painting. Painting backgrounds is an ongoing challenge for many painters. This is certainly the case for me. A background should be an integral part of the painting, created within the context the development of the painting, not as an after thought or a final thought. I was not happy with my original background of this painting, even though it resembled the original reference photo, I thought it could be more interesting. I’ve been practicing swerving lines and small floral and foliage elements during the past year. As someone explained on YouTube, painting is a physical exercise, and it requires effort and practice to teach the hand how to make different brush strokes. Think of the gymnast who has practiced and can perform a certain technique very well – but has no facility in another technique and must work hard to get her body to perform it. So it is with brushstrokes. It is few painters who can paint any subject matter very well. You should see how awkwardly my hand moves when painting the petals of roses or a cluster of petals in a lilac or hydrangea. Portraits over all are hardest to paint, (the nose. eyes, lips) but floral elements, require the most complex brushstrokes. For me, painting fruit is easiest. For a while now, I’ve wanted to add decorative floral elements to the backgrounds of my paintings. Last week I added some floral decorative elements to the portrait I painted. It was subtle but it was there. This week, I added floral elements more substantially to this still life painting above. I made quite a few other changes as well. The original painting is below. You may well think the simpler version is preferable. Important to me was giving my hand practice adding graceful swerves and floral elements which you see in the painting above – and there will be more because I am still practicing.
I think of the destruction and terror which must have been experienced by the hurricane victims – now trying to rebuild their lives. I also think of the terror of the Haitians who’ve been placed in harm, accused repeatedly of eating their neighbors cats and dogs. All very sad. Have a good weekend. Winifred
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Vintage
This painting was challenging and enjoyable. I couldn’t think of a good or clever name for it. This is the same young lady with all the curls I painted and posted a couple weeks ago. In the end I cropped my painting because I had an issue with her hand which was not right in the reference photo and I just couldn’t correct it. That’s fine – as paintings get cropped all the time. Not a lot to talk about today – probably a good thing. Have a great weekend. Winifred
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