you are what you eat.

Today I stayed with the chilli/lime theme and did my profile pic. There was no way I was going to be able to do an actual self portrait, so hell, might as well be silly.

ingredients

Two of my current favourite ingredients. Well, even though that is true, I also cheated a bit; ginger should have been in here but I didn't figure it would look good. Also, there are other times when potatoes or something equally dull looking are my fave ingredient, and I probably won't paint them. I should look out for nice aubergines though.

I stoopidly put these on a plate, and then immediately lost the shape of the thing. I don't mind my lime actually, and the bottom chilli has it's moments. This was done in extreme haste as I was just back from a horrid two hour dentist session and was getting sorer and sorer as the numbness wore off.

curry for dinner

I popped over to the local veg shop and came back with a huge leafy bunch of coriander, a juicy hand of ginger, shiny green limes and long deep red chillies- I love that, a big bag of ZING -  I'm more and more interested in cooking limey/zesty/fiery/fresh food these days.

The chillies were crying out to be painted, and I'm not utterly disapointed with the result. I like parts of this, and am cross about other parts.  It's amazing how just one little brush stroke can either make things right, or make bits fail. I suppose that's part of the challenge. I'm still loving trying though.

spring and sun and daffs

Glorious sunny spring day, did hours of gardening. The few daffodils I have looked beautiful in half sun, half shade, so I murdered two and brought them inside.

I knew once I started attempting things that need to be drawn properly that things would go very wrong, et voila! The bottle and perspective, and curves and straight lines, and all that are wrong, but... I kinda like this. I'll call  it naive. It took me absolutly ages to try and get blues sorted a bit. An environmental crimes worth of paper plates was used up in the effort.

Back to peppers

I don't know why I went back to peppers, I think I was doing better with the tomatoes.

This seems to me to be a step backwards. The brushstrokes aren't strong enough. I had problems with the light: the painting was taped onto the kitchen cupboard, but there wasn't enought light on it. I wasn't really able to see the colours properly, and therefore kept chopping and changing, hence the busy scrubbiness. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

Tomatoes two

The first of the Isle of Wight tomatoes are in, I think the tomatoes we have eaten for the last few months have all been from Sicily and Spain, so it's nice for some reason to see the first English ones.

Well the tomatoes may be deep , dark , and delicious looking, but this is dull dull dull. On one hand I'm still quite thrilled that any of these pics arent entirely disgustingly ghastly, but... on the other... 

I'm disappointed at the sludgy green/grey/godknowswhat background colour. The tomatoes are I suppose tomatoey, but a bit bitty. I can be very hesitant about where to put what brushstroke, I think it shows. Big confident boldness would be so much better. 

Early days , ho hum.

Onwards and upwards - tomatoes!

The peppers had given their all, but luckily some nice big toms arrived in the veg box. The process seems to be the same each time: huge excitement and anticipation, followed by muddled , dejected middle, followed by attempt to retrieve seemingly lost cause.

 I'm sort of pleased with this! I'd go so far as saying I like it. They do manage to look like apples with tomato tops though. The colour here is a bit different than the real thing, actually, all these pics look better on the screen than in real life. I need to work on tone, I can't seem to decide what should be how dark, if that makes sense. I also need to know how to mix good dark darks.

Again,  an hour and a half, but too much of that is faffing: looking for bits, taping things onto kitchen cupboards, finding the lamp. I've missed lunch again and am famished, maybe I should eat the stuff rather than paint it.

Attempt no.4

 Today was  1) the day I got my own paints instead of borrowing, ( first oil paints ever, v. exciting!)  and 2) the day I started this blog. The blog I suppose is an attempt at incentivising myself. Hopefully things will progress, and maybe looking back will make me aware of this and spur me on . Of course, things may go nowhere, but I shall optimistically believe otherwise for the mo.

Oh it's all so tricky. I think I thought things would go better quicker. Again, there are bits that I like, and bits I'm disapointed with: The stalks are bad, I've lost the shape of the bulbous bits at the top of the peppers, some of the background is sludgy . Hell, at least they look like peppers.

This took 1hour 25 min start to finish, i.e, getting out stuff, painting, and then tidying away. It's not easy to find an hour and a half; lunch, which I love and look forward to, was a miserable snatch of a bit of scone. Oh the life of a painter is a story of  hardship and deprivation!

The peppers may have had enough, they are flagging, I think we'll eat them tonight.

Attempt no.3

My husband Paul  took an interest in an Americal painter, Carol Marine, who does small, daily  still lifes. This is what sparked this interest, little still lifes hadn't occured to me before. I can try and fit them into the day. Her work is beautiful, simple, direct, painterly : inspiring and depressing in equal quantities.

I'll stick to the peppers for a few days, see if it's a good way to learn from mistakes.

Hmm, this is a bit okay here and there, but is bitty, blodgy and too white too. I stood up today, much better idea!

Attempt no 2.

Part of the reason that learning to paint with oils seems possible now, is that I'm going to try still life, and I'm going to try small. I've watercoloured before, but only life drawing, and there is a disapointing lack of naked people draped around my kitchen most days, so that's out. My attempts at w/colour landscapes were cringeworthy and I had no idea how to redress that. Also, takes too much time/effort/weather/ etc to go find and sit in front of  the outdoors.

Still life however is accessible, and fit-in-able. Peppers; look good, nice colour, shape doesn't take as much skill as somethings, i.e. it may not be noticible when it's not right.

I'm actually quite chuffed!! It's not what I am aiming for, but it isn't a total horror. I like the background colours, and I like the  shadow colour, although, it doesn't work as a shadow: the pepper is floating. I knelt on the floor doing it, both legs died.

Considering that is the first time ever ever I've painted with oils, I like the feel of it.