Peonies and Green Apples Oil Painting, 9" x 12", Oil on Panel

“Peonies and Yellow Apples”

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I recently finished a commission of peonies and had so much of the color left on my palette, I decided to do another peony painting. I just couldn’t see wasting all that luscious pink paint. The apples were green originally but I liked them better as yellow. They were left over too. Not anymore…I just ate the last one.

Old Master Paintings with an Expressionist feel by Susan Martin Spar who creates original oil paintings every day. These daily paintings consist of still life, figure art, and landscape art.

Peonies in Asian Vase, Oil Painting, 18" x 24"

“Full Bloom”
SOLD

This is a recent commission I completed just yesterday. I really enjoyed getting my teeth into something big again. The painting was done in layers for the most part although there are some wet-in-wet worked areas. My collector loves it and that’s what’s most important. Hope you enjoy it too! To see how this painting was done, click here.

Old Master Paintings with an Expressionist feel by Susan Martin Spar who creates original oil paintings every day. These daily paintings consist of still life, figure art, and landscape art.

Oil Painting Lesson for Peonies and Asian Vase

Here’s a close up of the leaves and table flowers. It’s not that noticeable in the photo but I’ve been enhancing some of the blooms by deepening color and scumbling lites in a a few places. Tips of the petals have more color in them and I’ve added this in a few places. Often things that are not at first noticeable to you, become more so as time goes by. These less obvious statements can be brought out in later passes.

There’s a bit of reflected pink on the side of the vase where the flowers rest against it. I’ve added that as well. Notice there are no shadows yet on the table top. Generally these are added even before I start a painting, but I opted to use a glazing method to put them in afterwards. I wanted to develop the leaves a bit more before I do that.

So here I’ve started to add some of the stems and more leaves. In order to differentiate the ones in front from the leaves in back, I’ve lighted some of the edges on the leaves. I’ll refine these even further in the last session.

Notice the cast shadows from the leaves on the table cloth.

I felt that the peony on the left side was a bit too lit up and it was stealing the show from the larger one which is the main focal point of the painting. Even though I loved the way that other peony looked, it’s never a good idea to sacrifice an entire painting for the purpose of preserving a single passage. So I mixed a glaze of the Quinacridone Pink with some green and started to knock it down a bit.
Now that the pant is dry on the other flowers, I’m free to add some modeling to some of the petals by adding more lights and darks. The lights are added with mixtures of titanium white which has high tinting strength and small amounts of Naples Yellow or the Quinacridone Pink – depending on what I’m after. If I add a white/yellow mixture, the petal will round outward. If I add a the pink, it will tend to retreat a bit. Not as much as if I cooled the mixture with green, but just enough to turn the petal away from me.

I’ve also done some more darkening on the apple on the left. The stems and leaves are easier to view here.

Oops. Camera is a bit tilted here. But I think you can get an idea. I’ve mixed some Ultramarine Blue with some umber to tone it down. A glaze mixture with the use of Maroger Medium was combined and then using a soft sable, I started to lay in the lines for the blue design on the vase. I’m careful here to maintain the structure of the vase which is not quite round, but slightly squared off. The design helps to describe the form.

The paint under the glaze is completely dry so that it’s safe to put the glaze on, and if I make a mistake, wipe it out with a brush that has been wet with thinner.
I took the time here to work some more on the petals of the flower resting on the table. I’ve darkened some of the leaves and created stronger cast shadows from them on the table cloth.

Here I’ve added more details. The design the top of the vase is done by making a mixture of shadow white with a touch of ultramarine blue. Remember this part of the design is in the shadow.

I’ve also refined the shape and thickness of the blue lines and darkened the shadow under the vase and some of the other objects on the table.

Viola! Finito la comedia. Or, in other words, done! Much nicer when you get to view the whole piece in one shot.

The final design is in. I’ve heightened the lights on the vase in a couple of places by scumbling in some lighter mixture here and there. The table top is a bit more lit up where the apples are. I’m also finally happy with the peony that is drooping off to the left. It no longer steals the show and tucks back nicely with some atmosphere around it. I’ve darkened the table cloth toward the bottom of the picture as well.

Well, the painting is done, signed and for the most part, both the client and myself are happy with it. Hope you like it too. Thanks for stopping by. Remember, in order to see the whole lesson in one easy read, check out the lesson on my website by clicking here.

“Full Bloom”
18″ x 24″, Oil on Canvas

How to Paint Peonies, Day Four

Today proved to be a trying one. I had contractors, engineers and inspectors banging all over the house and the constant interruptions had me banging my head against the wall and sniffing paint fumes in a vain attempt to escape it all.

But in spite of all the craziness, I did manage to get a few things accomplished. I had the curtain on the French door behind me open and so had a bit of cool light to paint by. Hence the bluish tint on the left side o the canvas. That shouldn’t prove to be too much of a difficulty here as I’m illustrating the last of the flowers in this picture.

I re-entered the painting by first giving a slight blue glaze to the background to cool down some of the yellow tint in the umber background. I’m still not sure of the tapestry look and may decide before painting in the leaves to just make the background solid. It feels a bit distracting to me.
After glazing the background, I finished off the last three flowers. These are still not quite done at this point and I’ll get back to them before the close of the session. It’s difficult to work out all the values on the flowers until their surroundings are painted in.

Time for the apples. I started with their shadows by mixing in a bit of burnt umber and a touch of yellow ochre for reflected light. Then I was on to the shadows of the apples. I started with raw umber and some Cadmium Yellow Light mixed in. This was further toned with a little Cad Red Light. I mixed this lightly with some toned down Thalo Green for the more colorful spots on the apples. A touch of Yellow Ochre and white for the reflected light becomes evident in the next photo.

Note that an object’s truest color will be on the turning edge just as the light on the object turns to shadow. The core shadow follows this. It’s easiest to remember this by just noting that light washes out color and shadow obscures it.

The lights are added in here with some Cad Yellow Light, white and a touch of umber to tone the brightness (although that’s hard to tell from my camera). The reflected lights are more evident here.
I’ve also painted in the table top, although this too will be brightened eventually. A bit of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber with some Naples Yellow lights up the table.

The top right hand corner of the background looks a bit warm here. Some of that may be due to the fact that the cool light from the door behind me is not falling on that portion of the canvas.

In either case, I’ll need to reassess in the morning with natural light coming in evenly. I have a skylight just outside the old studio that can be used for this purpose. I use two color corrected Ott Lights additionally, but find that the skylight is best for this. I will be such a boon when the new studio is finished. I have a seven by five foot arched north light window in it. Perfect for this sort of thing.

I’ve started to put in the shadows for the table cloth. Notice that I’ve painted out the leaves here. I know where they’re going and have decided that it would be best to paint them in over the table cloth. This is always a last minute judgment call for me as I often paint them together with the cloth and background. I’ve been taking my time here so things are developing a bit differently. Shadow color is a bit of black, Cad Yellow Light and white. I’ve warmed it a bit with Burnt Umber.

I simplified the table cloth and reworked it several times before I felt I could leave it for a bit and move on to the cut apples. Like everything else, I’ll revisit it several times during the next painting session. The cut apples were done much the same as the larger ones. Note that I’ve gone back and darkened the interior of the other apples.

The lighted table cloth is done with Naples Yellow and White. This is just a slightly warmed mixture of white, not a cooled mixture of yellow. But the temperature difference is enough to make the table top pop. Additionally, I took small amounts and used it on the flowers in a few places where I wanted the light to sparkle on the flowers. That warm light really works against the cooler pink . I know it sounds strange – but remember temperature is relative. My pinks are cool pinks and the white is a warm white.
This is perhaps the best representation of what is happening in the painting thus far. The color is a bit softer in this photo and the contrast not as sharp as in the others.

I deepened the shadows around the flower at the bottom that is drooping off the table edge and heightened the edges so that it stands away from the table cloth. The table cloth and the back of the table itself are softly inferred in the background. A little light peeks in behind the cut apples. I’ve also taken some Quinacridone Pink glaze and brushing it into the tips of the petals.

There’s much I need to do here and I have only three days before they tear into my studio rendering it unusable for a few days. So tomorrow is another day. It’s midnight and I’ve posted this first to my website so I’ll copy it over to the blog in the morning. Nighty night.

Peony Oil Painting, 6" x 6"

“Peony”
NFS

Today started with an early rise so that I could get my wrecked studio into shape for my students who were returning after the holiday break. What a mess! After about two hours I managed to get enough stuff moved around so that folks could work. I am so done with this whole waiting thing! I can’t wait until the new studio is finished. You could hide a body in the old one.

After my students left, I got busy with Day Two of my commission but didn’t wrap it up until dinner time. So for my daily painting, I borrowed one of the peonies from the painting and, viola! A daily painting. OK – so it’s not for sale. But I did finish it in about the time I take to do a DP, so it sort of counts. Check in with my teaching blog later tonight for more about this peony and the painting as it develops.

Old Master Paintings with an Expressionist feel by Susan Martin Spar who creates original oil paintings every day. These daily paintings consist of still life, figure art, and landscape art.

How to Paint Peonies

“The Peony Commission”
Working Title

Peonies are such beautiful, lush flowers that it’s no mystery that they are loved by nearly all flower aficionados. I received this commission a couple of days ago and thought it might be fun to share the painting process with you.

The size of the painting is 18″ x 24″ at the request of the client. I sent her three compositional images and she decided on this vertical format. I’m glad because I’m a bit partial to this composition. Mainly this is because I love drama. Even in something as quiet as a still life, there can be great drama.

Notice how the composition is at eye level. You can basically divide the canvas into three areas. Below the table, the top of the table to the Golden Mein (about one third of the way down from the top, and the top one third where most of the flowers reside.
I chose an “S” composition for this floral as I often do in vertical compositions. Notice how the flowers form a backwards question mark or take an actual “S” direction. I chose green apples to offset the prinks in the flowers. I actually added some cut apples to the right after this picture was taken. They become apparent in the painting.

I first prepared the canvas a couple of days in advance by coating it with a thin layer of under painting white mixed with Liquin to help it’s drying time. I did this for two reasons: first, I prefer a smooth surface to one with texture and I like the way paint moves on a surface that has been primed with paint. The white under painting will cause the flowers to glow with an appearance of light emanating from within as the painting ages.

When the canvas was dry, I drew with charcoal the actual placement of the major elements and then sprayed the whole thing with a touch of hairspray. Nice to know that stuff is still useful for something.
Next I wiped on a thin layer of Burnt Umber mixed with Quinacridone Orange and then started to lift out the lights. I like this process of under painting because it allows me to make decisions as I go. If something doesn’t look right where I’ve placed it, I can easily move it by painting back into the toned canvas and wiping out the lights elsewhere. But my drawing was good here and I was pretty happy with the way the flowers were placed. I had made some changes to the flowers you see in the photograph until I was happy. Often, I won’t see things that need fixing until I start to get things on canvas. That’s why I can’t work from photos. Things looked flat in the photo I sent to the client but really started to fill out nicely when I started actually lifting out the lights on the canvas.

Here you can see the under painting developed further. I added a bloom or two to the left and filled out some other areas. I moved the flower on the table further to the right and the small one further to the left to bring out more of the “S” shape I was referring to. The large Peony in the top left of center is right about on the intersection of the Golden Mein, the sweet spot of the painting and where I want the viewer’s eyes to go. While it takes precedence now, it will be a challenge to keep it’s importance once color is added.

I pulled out lights where the light spills from the left across the vase. You might notice now that there is no design on the vase. That’s the last thing that gets added to the painting.
I’ve filled in some leaves and you can see now also where the apples and cut apples fall. I’ve brushed in some shadows as well to unify the piece.

OK. I’m about done here. The cloth is not quite finished and I’m thinking I’ll change quite a bit on there as the painting proceeds. I often move the light source to provide a few shadows and lit parts on the cloth in the front. I don’t want to do that until the majority of the painting is done as once the light moves, it’s difficult to get things back where they were. While a purist might say that the shadows will not be true to life, an “artist” knows that what works in a painting is not generally true to life in all cases.

I’ve lightened the background on the right. This will add more depth to the painting later. It won’t be bright, per se, but will be a softly shadowed mid tone to allow the flowers to fade into it. The left side will be darker.

All this, mind you, is subject to change. But for the most part, I’m happy with this first stage. Check back tomorrow or the next day to see the next step. Thanks for tuning in.

If the lesson is difficult to follow on the blog, I suggest you click here to follow it on my website where the type flows smoother. Just click on “Peony Commission” when you get there.

How to Paint Pink Roses in Two Hours

My deepest apologies for having taken so long to post to this blog again. I’ve been touring the Mediterranean and before that summer had me in high gear for the festival season. But winter is here again – nearly, and so I’m back to my routine of publishing regularly.

I thought I’d start off with a small painting I did today for Daily Painters. I thought that after a month or so away, it would be really hard to get into the studio, but I found myself getting excited about squeezing out paint as I moved around getting a small set up ready. The construction guys are working on my new studio so it was comforting to push paint around while I listened to the steady drum of hammering on my new roof.

I know that I promised I’d talk about my workshop with David Leffel but I’ve decided that I’d talk about what I learned as I integrate it into lessons. That way it sticks for me and makes better sense for you. So, let’s begin.

Here’s the set up.

Sorry that this photo’s a bit on the blurry side. Before I left on vacation, I put everything away in anticipation of the construction crew breaking through to the old studio. So much as for construction schedules. I had some trouble locating the tripod. Don’t worry – it gets better. Just a reminder to new folks just tuning in for the first time. These shots of the set up are just for your information. I NEVER use photos to paint from in still life. Photos distort and generally mask color and light in disproportionate ways. Shadows are always too dark and lack color and the highlights are always washed out. Texture all but disappears. I always work from life when I can, and I encourage and teach all my students to do the same.

I kept the setup simple here because I needed to ease back into the painting process after a month away. In the next photo, you can see how I blocked in the basic shapes. I sort of drew the composition in with raw umber and then filled in the shadow areas with umber to get an idea of the composition and how I wanted to fill the space.

After I did this little sketch, I decided that the whole thing needed to be moved down a bit and when I started to fill in the background, I did so. I used a combination of Thalo Blue, Ivory Black and Raw Umber to work in the darker areas of the background. The same combo with more white and Naples Yellow was used for the lighter area.

You can see that I haven’t yet moved things down here, but it becomes evident in the next photo.

David Leffel prefers filbert bristles and that’s a big change for me. I have traditionally preferred to use sables and still do for the smoothing of a background. But here you can see that I am using a palette knife which is another of David’s favorite tools. I am quite enjoying the mastering of this tool and find that it works very well for helping me to attain the texture I desire on my vases.

To turn the vase, I used more of the background color with a bit of Ultramarine Blue. I darkened it a bit more with Ivory Black and used it along the core shadow. This added some drama to an otherwise ho hum set up. For the vase itself, I used white, some of the Thalo Blue and a big of Naples yellow. I didn’t mixed the color evenly but just jostled it a bit with my brush to give a more interesting mixture. Then after using a brush in a cross wise (across the form) motion, I then turned to the palette knife to bring in texture. Notice the reflected light on the shadow side. Just a slightly lighter mixture.

I find students get all tied up over what “color” to make the reflected light. I’m a bit like David here in that I use color on colorlessness as my MO. That means that I don’t dither too much over the dead areas but keep them simple. You can choose to add some color in the reflected light areas but they should be kept generally cool in temperature. Shadows should be warm. I laughed at the workshop when I heard David say to a student, “cool light, warm shadows; warm light….uh…warm shadows.” Shadows just look a lot better when they are warm. If you are using blue in your shadows, use a warm blue – one that has red in it to warm it. Here on the cloth, I used some of the background color neutralized with raw umber to warm it a bit. I felt OK using that blueish tone because there was so much of it in the background and vase already that it made sense to use it in the shadows.

For the cloth, I used a touch of the background color with Ivory Black, a tiny bit -TINY – of Cadmium Yellow and a touch of white for the shadows areas. Some warmth was added in areas with some Yellow Ochre ans white. The light areas of the cloth were done with white and Naples Yellow. I used a palette knife in places to build up the highlights.

For the table top I used a bit of Burnt Umber, white and Cadmium Yellow Light for the top and for the sides, just Burnt Umber. I kept the brush work loose and strove to keep it light. Next, on to the roses.

I like to use quinacradone colors for my pink or red flowers because the color is very intense and doesn’t get washed out with white as do the Cadmium reds. I used Daniel Smith Quinacradone Pink for the base color of the roses and then I added mixture of Cadmium Orange and Cadmium Yellow Deep to it to bring out the coral color in the roses.

While it looks like there’s a lot going on in these flowers, their construction was really quite simple. I used a medium size filbert and brushed in the center color. A couple of strokes was all it took to make the petals. Where I wanted a petal to turn or an edge to come forward, I piled on the paint, made the edge sharper and sculpted the paint. I use Maroger Medium for this as it allows me to retain brush strokes and build the paint up. I grayed out the pink with an addition of background color (it looks more blue here than green due to the thalo, but in reality it has more of a green cast which neutralizes the pink in the flowers and makes for a good shadow.

In the last photo and the finished painting below, you can see the leaves were worked in last. I used Thalo Blue and Cadmium Yellow Light with touches of Naples Yellow here and there. For the darkest parts of the leaves, I mixed the color with a touch of Ivory Black to strengthen the darks and shadows. Let me emphasize the fact that when I use Ivory Black, these are just little dabs of this neutral. Ivory Black has a lot of blue in it and can actually be used in some paintings as blue if properly painted alongside colors of more neutral or warm tint. Try making a lovely green by adding some Cadmium Yellow to Ivory Black. You couldn’t do that if it didn’t have blue in it. You just don’t want to overdue the black or use it by itself for shadows. It would deaden the space. Shadows should have some color or light breathed into them. That’s why I use Cadmium Yellow in my shadows. The last thing I did here was to add more Naples Yellow to the background to liven it up and some pure Quinacradone Pink and Alazarin Crimson in the center of the flowers. A quick little warm up to get back into the flow of paint. Any questions, just post them here and I’ll answer them for you so everyone gets to see the answers. Thanks for tuning in!

Oil Painting of Pink Roses, 9" x 12" Oil on Linen Panel

“November Roses”
SOLD

It’s a funny thing about painting. Often artists resist the one thing they love the most. It’s been labeled a lot of things like “resistance”, “block”, “creative anxiety”, etc. But what it amounts to is this. Just before I’m due to arrive in my studio, I find a thousand other things to do. Like vacuum, wash dishes, do the laundry, call my long lost relatives, even do my taxes! What I need to remind myself is that once I get in there and get going, all that resistance disappears.

Today, though, I actually found myself getting excited about squeezing out some paint and getting elbow deep in paint. The pastel I did the other day was just a warm up. I found today’s little painting a lot easier to do than I thought I would, having been away from the easel for over a month. I got quickly into the piece and was just humming along to the busy sound of construction guys hammering on the new studio roof just outside my window.

Well, here it is. I chose something simple for today’s exercise. Hope you like it. I used lots of paint and a palette knife to apply it with. I’m trying to utilize that tool more than I have in the past and find that it is wonderful for getting the look I’m after on some of my vases.

Old Master Paintings with an Expressionist feel by Susan Martin Spar who creates original oil paintings every day. These daily paintings consist of still life, figure art, and landscape art.

Daily Oil Panting of Yellow Roses, 9" x 12" on Canvas

“Yellow Roses”
$75.00
SOLD

Yellow roses are my favorites (I think) – no really. It changes from time to time. But I do love them and they always seems to lift my spirits a little. I don’t know about you, but right now, in these times, I need all the help I can get. Chocolate helps too. I fussed with these a bit. Roses are always a challenge. See the detail shot below.

Old Master Paintings with an Expressionist feel by Susan Martin Spar who creates original oil paintings every day. These daily paintings consist of still life, figure art, and landscape art.

Oil Painting of Asian Vase and Tumbling Red Roses, 14" x 18" Oil on Linen

“Tumbling Roses”
$150
Click here to e-mail me about purchase.

This piece has been sitting on my easel demanding to be finished while other obligations got in the way. Despite my earlier struggles with this piece, I’m content with the way in which it was resolved. I think the roses came out just great and the greenery which posed such a problem at first, was handled well. I’ve been finding out that my skills can get rusty if I’m away from the easel for only a few days. What am I going to do when I go to Europe in two weeks?! All I’ll have is a sketch book. Maybe I can bring some watercolors.

Old Master Paintings with an Expressionist feel by Susan Martin Spar who creates original oil paintings every day. These daily paintings consist of still life, figure art, and landscape art.