I have always felt that a still-life needs to exude a sense of presence – or stillness – and beauty. When I pick up a beautiful bowl I want to caress it and enjoy its texture and shape. it is an object that is sensual. this is what I woudl like to convy in my large still-life paintings.
For this reason, I chose vases and decided to show them as if they are museum exhibits.
The background is birchply with a thin wash of white oils and it is carved to create texture and flatten the picture plane.
This vase is filled with pussy-willow to show its glass texture. The cloth is tatted lace and the colour picks up with the fluffy pussy-willow buds.
Ah, this painting was an interruption! I was asked to paint using tulips as a theme, so I ordered 24 white tulips and popped them into a vase. I have explored pattern in the background to scintillate against the glass.
Now for some details!
I used aluminium on the top of the vase and semi-painted over it. You can also see the carving clearly here.
The cloth has meticulous brushwork on the right and loose impressionistic brushwork on the left. It wa svery important to get the perspective right here with a vanishing point!
So many shades of white, and glassware, and reflections. This was quite a challenge, but I loved making it work, especially with the rubber stamping of oils on aluminium! There are some more vases in the wings, but it is essentially a winter project, while I get on with the business of Cloudscapes and Autumn Harvests (not to mention 6×6’s of jugs and berries)!
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