I've been reading Jane Freeman's book, A Celebration of Light which I am enjoying and picking up some tips from. One thing that has become evident is that I want to use the most transparent colors possible. I actually took the semi-opaque colors off my palette. This was done with the yellow/purple palette plus a bit of cobalt green.
I took me as long to set up and think about what, how and why I wanted to paint than actually painting. Lot's of layering here and since I don't use a hair dryer and always let it dry really well there's a lot of down time. As I look at it now I think I might soften the little leaf that's pointing straight north. It's always gentler to to have directional shapes neither completely verticle or horizontal.. Well, for me anyway.
I used to do three paintings of the same set up when I lived upstate (and was younger and didn't have to worry about sitting for too long and the effect it would have on my back) and now found myself doing it again. It's more conducive to experimentation.
At first I was going to paint a group of objects as 90% of my work is composed that way. Then I realized I wasn't really into it and threw out the board. This is something new and quite freeing. I mean the discarding of a painting en route! Always a task to be true to ourselves!
I wanted to translate the treatment of the "onion portraits" into other objects and into more than one object. It's mainly integrating the cast shadows with the body shadows. I have the habit of looking at my older work and trying to understand what worked and put that into new work.
