Developing ideas for small still life paintings.

During January 2022 a began gathering ideas to create a new series of small still life paintings. In my blog this month I will show the progress that I have made so far. I am hoping to complete the series for an exhibition later in the year.

Gathering my ideas

I started gathering my ideas for this series of paintings by looking at mid century ceramics and patterns and designs which I had used in my last Bloomsbury series. Its often the case that series ideas overlap and there are links with previous work its all a continuation of a journey that we go on. I firstly created a mood board and collaged together lots of images and ideas, making notes and creating a plan for developing these ideas.

Getting started on composition and drawings

After reviewing my ideas I decided to start with drawing, observation for me is an important time to explore the shapes and composition without colour. Below are a few examples of my drawings and developing notans for composition.

Underpainting

I selected 4 drawings to take in to a painting and start to think about the introduction of colour. After sketching out I used an underpainting of burnt sienna which should give a warm undertone to the paintings. I wanted an warm earthy feel to the paintings which would compliment the use of mid century ceramics and the feeling of comfort, memory and snapshots of domestic life.

Colour palette

I selected a warm colour palette and also a strong contrast with darks and lights, with this in mind I have decided on a limited palette so I can concentrate on the contrast and select colours for their tonal value. I began with burnt sienna, raw sienna, violet, white and black. I have just experimented with mixing lots of combinations from this palette and then grouping them into darks and lights and warm and cool

Next time I’ll have some in progress photographs and videos of me painting!