holy smokes i sold a painting!!

hi there!

i had some pretty exciting news today & i wanted to share it with you - i sold a painting! it was at a local gallery, and was bought just yesterday!

here it is - Three Oranges!



it was painted in response to this challenge

http://rookiepainter.blogspot.com/2010/02/challenge-one.html

the first one from rookiepainter.

this is the reference photo



and this is how i cropped it!




i deliberately cropped it so that there was little but the oranges for a couple of reasons. one - it was three days before the deadline when i discovered the challenge so i needed to get it smaller! and, i needed something that would work well composition-wise in a small format (it's 5"x7", on canvas). i find that, with my health, the most i can paint at a time is two hours, so i knew i had a total of 6 hours to finish it!

unfortunately i don't have any process photos for this one (i was painting too fast to take 'em!). i started with a canvas that had been toned in cadmium yellow light (it was fully dry when i began) in hopes that'd help set off the blue & also brighten the oranges. then i used charcoal to sketch in the placement of the oranges and worked the background in prussian blue (i find i tend to get the background in first, then work on the center of interest). i also tend to use transparents for the backgrounds & shadows of still lifes, and opaques for the objects & center of interest. this helps the background go back & everything else come forward - and i'm always surprised when that really works!

after that, i got the oranges where i wanted them (working from the shadow to the light after applying a middle-value orange overall), then worked some ultramarine blue in to brighten some of the background & help the eye move around the painting. whew!!

gotta say, it makes me wanna do more challenges! and - i can now say i'm collected throughout the state!! (well, i've sold two and they're in two different cities . . . ! who knows - 'oranges' may even end up outta state - makes it national, no?!!)

hope you enjoyed seeing this one - i'll miss it!

till next time (which will be about my studio!) - take care!

dusty!