"Opulence"

"Opulence" - Oil - 12" x 12"

"How I love rich paint and flowers! The two combine well in this new work, I think, and I‘ve titled it “Opulence“.

The heavy red blossoms support a brilliantly lit orange one that shows behind the first rank. Scattered leaves and blue accents move the eye through the space as a triangle of the crisp white drape defines the foreground tabletop.

The combination of thick impasto and winning color carry my enthusiasm to the viewer.

Prints are available at http://fineartamerica.com/featured/opulence-susan-f-greaves.html.

"Ladies' Day"

"Ladies' Day" - Oil - 16" x 20"

"I chose to paint this floral as set against cool light from the window. The old-fashioned tea pot suggested the title." --- SFG

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DEMONSTRATION:

This simple setup is the inspiration and point of departure for the upcoming painting. The longer I've painted, the more I am able to "feel" what the painting needs. Consequently, I can add items, either from my stock of still life objects or from my head, in response to how the painting develops. The ultimate purpose is to create balance in the painting.

The drawing, too, is simple and subject to correction as I go. You'll notice that I've already changed the location of the vertical parts of the window to divide the canvas in a more interesting way. If I don't have the perfectly proportioned canvas for the setup, this redesign trick makes it work. By pushing the flowers off the top edge, they serve as another division, as will the cast shadows that come forward intersect the bottom edge.

I want to make this a high-key painting, so when I put in the shadowed sides of the teapot, vase, and leaves, I made sure I was using a fairly light "dark". Notice that I started with what looks like a very cool color. A law of light states that if the light source is cool, the shadows will be warm in comparison. If this color choice turns out to be too cool, my corrections later will just make the colors vibrate more. They look so cool at this stage because the canvas is toned with a warm red.

Now, I've laid in the other medium darks of the flowers, peach, leaf, and window frame. I've already begun relating reds to reds, greens to greens, and "whites" to "whites". Of course, these whites are backlit, so I must choose a fairly dark color to represent them.

Besides adding the warm shadows in the foreground, I have started searching for the right value and temperature of the background. It was bright outside, but the slight overcast toned down the color temperature.

The tablecloth reflects a lot of cool light and is almost as light as the background. I am beginning to use warm tones to give dimension to the vase and teapot. Nothing in shadow can be as light as anything in light. Note that I'm keeping the shadows quite warm in comparison to the lighted part of the tablecloth.

After I had modeled the forms of the teapot and vase, I added flowers and petals to the table top to balance the action in the flower arrangement. Notice how the flower arrangement is subordinate to the teapot, whose form is much more developed. If I had expressed the flowers with too much vigor, they would have led the eye off the painting since they touch the top. Oops, I must go back and put a cast shadow under the flower on the left. It must be consistent with the lighting on the rest of the objects for me to succeed in adding something "out of my head".

"Variation on a Theme #5"

"Variation on a Theme #5" - Oil - 11" x 14"

"I selected the round vase from the previous setup and gave it a classic light-against-dark treatment. The value contrast makes a strong painting and the round vase, a pleasant contrast to the complex blooms." --- SFG

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"Variation on a Theme #4"

"Variation on a Theme #4" - Oil - 24" x 30"

"Continuing this series of rose paintings, I added fresh blooms and more vases. All these set-ups were lit by soft, cool light from my studio window. As you can see, my enthusiasm has not waned." --- SFG

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NOTE TO ARTISTS: I will be adding a work-in-progress discussion of this painting in a few days.

"Ann's Table"

"Ann's Table" - Oil - 16" x 20"

"Fellow artist Anne Laddon sets a lively table when she entertains. With the other Alla Prima International artists, we shared a fun and inspiring time at her beautiful home near Paso Robles, California. Here's a corner of that table, complete with wine, dip, and vegies." -- SFG

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REPOST: "A Life Well Lived" 20" X 20" Oil on Canvas Panel

"A Life Well Lived" - Oil - 24" x 20" - $1200

"From sadness to celebration. As I read my mother's journal, I was reminded once more of how much she delighted in flowers, gardens, and the passing of seasons. These brilliant tulips, a thoughtful gift of a dear friend, spoke of her enchantment." --- SFG

http://www.susanfgreaves.com/

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Because of the intensity of the colors in the tulips, I set them against black to take advantage of their vibrancy. They were still tightly closed until I turned on the spotlight. They unfurled as I painted.



As I drew with thinned cadmium red - it doesn't contaminate later colors and leaves a sparkle if I miss a spot when painting over it - I considered the directions of the leaf lines as well as the overall placement on the canvas. The vase and flowers were so dominant, I decided that they should be closest to the viewer. Normally, I have still life objects in front of the vase in a floral that serve to lead the eye into the arrangement. There was no question of where to go with these!



Because I knew that the flowers would change quickly, I established their colors immediately, comparing yellow to yellow, red to red, and white to white. This was a break from my regular method and I knew that I would make considerable adjustments after the surrounding colors were in. Placing a new color next to an existing one ALWAYS changes the existing one.



Here, I've added that dark background. It really intensified the tulip colors, didn't it? I made careful note of the color differences as the light traveled across the tablecloth and passed through the water-filled vase.



I toned down the yellow pot that was behind everything and changed it to look like more of a tray standing against the background drape. I used its curve to repeat those of the leaves. As a pot, not enough of it showed to explain what it was, but I needed something to bring some action to the lower part of the painting. I couldn't eliminate it entirely.

I compared the color on the lighted side of the pink vase to the pinks in the flowers and hit a warmer, somewhat grayed pink. Putting a cool, grayed pink on the shadow side made the lighted side look warmer, too. Notice the warm versus cool on the teapot, as well.

At the end of this session, I turned off the lights and heat in the studio, so the flowers would not open too much to work the next day.



Best laid plans didn't work, though. The blooms were tightly closed again when I opened the studio the next afternoon and turned on the spotlight, but the hour I let the studio warm up was a bit too much. When I returned, the tulips were much more opened and had moved a lot as they chased the light.

Instead of redrawing all, I simply added some of flowers in their new location and state. This filled out the bouquet and added more interesting shapes. The white bloom with red stripes inside is actually the one on its left as it opened and moved. It became the point with the greatest value change and hardest edge.

Note also, how I softened the edges of all but a few of the tulips.




Because of the action in the bouquet, I included all the variations in color and value present in the vase, table drape and other objects. Both light highlights and dark accents contributed.