10/20/2009 6:49 AM
I am about to begin another set of still life-type paintings. The ones I finished last night were Still Life with Plums instead of apples, Cashews (with the nut) instead of pears. VG’s still life with pottery and two bottles became in my composition,…well as you see. Amazing what your kitchen pantry can turn out when you need bottle shapes.
It is very liberating to paint in this manner, to paint ordinary things and to see them again with fresh eyes. To paint them not as they really are, but as they appear to be, to capture the mood of an inanimate object if that is possible.
I believe that it is the background red that is moving me in a direction I had not foreseen that is exciting to me, more so for the freedom to just apply paint and not be too focused on making it perfect. Mood painting? Probably, but it is working for me. Drawing with my paintbrush is what I should have been doing all along. Whatever this is, I am captivated by this moment, and am moving forward.
Still life with French novels and a rose has become Haitian box with blue milk jug and oleanders, (which I am still working on) and again the box with a blue (Hypnotiq) bottle and lemons (see pix here).
My potatoes in a yellow dish are actually slices of mango in a blue and white bowl. They were delicious, could not leave them to waste after all.