Tea Bag and a Zazzy Teacup

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 22


One cup of tea leads to another cup of tea.

I wasn't exactly sure about the composition of this cup and with the teabag - and the square format but I painted it anyway.
I played around with the background with my palette knife, picking up on some of the colors in the cup and cloth.
I'm sticking with the square format for this challenge for simplicity sake.

The painting is quite tight in style on this one, but wasn't sure how else to attack that zazzy pattern!

And for those of you who are wondering what zazzy means:

Zazzy
Adjective:

(comparative zazzier, superlative zazziest)
(slang) shiny or flashy


(8 x 8 inches)
20 x 20cm approx
Oil on Gessobord  

Pomegranate and Raspberry Tea

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 21

Yesterday I got into a groove painting the swirly white and blue tablecloth, so I got straight onto another painting with the same cloth.
This is one of my personal favorites.
You can't go wrong with a cup of tea. Definitely firmly back in my comfort zone.

I'm two-thirds of the way through this January challenge!
It's been tough but very rewarding.
There was an update from Strada Easel yesterday that said there were still 500 people participating in the challenge. 

(8 x 8 inches)
20 x 20cm approx
Oil on Gessobord  

Tea for Martina

So I painted this one ages ago and I have been dying to post it, but it was a painting for a friend so I didn't feel I could post it until she had received it.
Martina is an Australian friend that I met since living in New York. Her daughter and my daughter met on the first day of school and became firm friends immediately! Martina and I got involved in our local town residents club social team and organised lots of activities together and our families became friends.
Unfortunately for us (not for them) the family recently decided to move back to Australia. We were all extremely sad to see them go, but since we are ex-pats ourselves, completely understood their reasoning.
Martina asked me to paint something for her and the objects are all from her kitchen. I fell in love with the adorable red enamel teapot and Martina loves to drink from a proper china teacup so this is my tribute to her.
She received the painting this morning all the way in Australia. It is now in their temporary rental house while they wait to move back into their permanent home.

The tablecloth was a challenge but wow I really enjoyed doing it. It wanted to make the pattern believable while keeping it fairly loose and not getting too hung up in the detail. Very happy with it and the painting overall.


(16 x 16 inches)
40 x 40cm approx
Oil on Gessobord

Paint and a brew

I've been meaning to paint a header for my blog for months.

I've had this 6x12" cradled board sitting around my studio - I ordered it by mistake so I used it up to paint my header. It's a different brand of gessobord than I usually buy and it was much more absorbent. I had to thin my paint with a lot of medium.

My inspiration for this one was my usual cup of brew (tea or coffee) that I have in more or less constant supply while painting, and a few of my paints. Sums me up I think. Plus I got some great compliments about this painting so I thought I'd continue the theme.

Here's a detail shot. You can see the full header at the top of the blog (unfortunately the header does not show on the mobile version, just the full web version).

You may notice the image of the brush reflected in the cup. I'd love to say that this was a deliberate ploy but I have to admit that it was more of a happy accident.

Anyway, glad I finally got this done so that I can move onto some new stuff.
I've got a million ideas swimming around in my head at the moment.

EDIT:
Having painted the header and having lived with it for a few days, I have decided to remove it. I think it is too distracting from the paintings in the posts.
I do like the painting however, so I've decided instead to just hang it in my studio.

Here's the full version:

Stripes, spots, spoons and spatulas.

A bit about brushes...

I have tried a variety of brands of brushes. I started out painting with Silver Briston and Princeton brushes, but I found both brands a little too stiff - I found I was removing almost as much paint as I was putting on. I stopped using these brands when I discovered Robert Simmons Titanium brushes which are much softer and I preferred the strokes I was getting with the paint when using them. Also they are great quality; they don't lose hairs and are great for clean-up.
However, while the Titanium brushes are great for loose strokes, they are not so great for lines or fine detail.
To paint the lines in this painting I reverted back to one of my Princeton brushes. I realised they are fantastic for painting hard edges! Now I don't like too many hard edges in my paintings, but this one required it. Don't ask me how to paint in straight lines because I haven't found a perfect answer. I'm sure there is a secret to it but all I can say is it takes practice and a bit of confidence with your brush.
I also recently purchased some angled Rosemary and Co brushes from the UK - which are great for getting into the little corners.

The painting...'stripes, spots, spoons and spatulas!'... it was only after I finished the painting that I realised it could have this rhythmic title.
I'm not sure how long this painting took, since I had to keep leaving it in stages to go to drop my son off at various soccer matches, but I think it was about 6 or 7 hours painting time and maybe an hour or so settling on the composition first. The still life is set up on my old vintage kitchen dresser.
I found that by dragging the edge of my brush through the paint I could create a few hints of the grain in the old painted wooden boards at the back of the dresser.


(10 x 10 inches)
25.4 x 25.4 cm
Oil on Gessobord



Not for sale