Three new paintings

I've just varnished three recent still life paintings. These are oil on canvas board. Images are all copyright Mike Todd (2011). These are now framed and for sale in the Backstairs Gallery within Swans of Oakham.

New painting - Three Pears

Completed a new oil painting of three pears. This is painted on canvas board. I've taken some framed still life paintings to the Backstairs Gallery within Swans of Oakham. Feel free to visit and buy!

New painting - garlic bulbs

Yet another new painting completed. I feel a bit self-conscious at the supermarket when going through the vegetable section looking for interesting subjects to paint. Each bulb is an individual! The beauty of these still lifes is that once they have been painted I can eat the subject. I'm now looking at recipes for garlic lamb. Click image for larger version.

Four garlic bulbs, Oil on Dibond, 150mm x 300m, (c) Mike Todd 2011

New painting - onion string

Just completed a new still life oil painting of a string of onions. This is on Dibond, an aluminium composite panel. I paint on the coated side which has a modified polyester lacquer which is smooth and hard. To prepare the panel I rub down the surface with an abrasive pad and then coat with Acrylic gesso primer. Panel size is 300mm x 150mm.

String of onions, Oil on Dibond, (c) Mike Todd 2011

New painting - Mandarin Oranges

Just completed a new painting, a still life with mandarin oranges. This is an oil painting on 150mm x 300mm board. Needs a month plus to dry before varnishing and framing.

Still life with mandarin oranges, Oil on board, (c) Mike Todd 2011.

Issuu publication of Still Life Paintings

I've been playing around with the Issuu online publication site. You can turn pdf documents into attractive presentations. For free! Here's one on my Still Life paintings.

Open publication - Free publishing - More still life

Step by step oil painting : Step 4

This is the final step, which includes glazing and finishing touches. To glaze the lemons I remembered that I had some Schmincke Mussini paint tubes. These oil paints include a resin and a large proportion of the colours are transparent or semi-transparent, making them ideal for glazing. I used Lemon Yellow, Translucent Yellow, Raw Sienna, and Translucent Golden Green, as well my standard Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. To make the glazing medium I used Stand Oil mixed with Liquin Light Gel and Sansador thinner. I also glazed the fabric using Violet with a little Ultramarine. After glazing, I decided to use some Titanium white 'specks' to lift the highlights on the lemons and cloth. This is contrary to what I said earlier on about not using opaque over transparent layers, but this is art so there are no rules! Because this was applied wet-into-wet and delicately placed, it turned out OK. Final stages were to finish the details on the bowl, and then I added a bit more dark to the fabric creases. These final details make the difference if you are going for a trompe-l'oeil effect.

I think the painting is finished, but I tend to leave paintings somewhere conspicuous for a few days to see if something starts to bug me enough that I have to fix it. Overall I'm quite happy with it, but I think it needs some gold in the frame just to lift the edges a bit.

I've painted another picture at the same time as this (click to enlarge). Although simpler I think this is a bit more interesting, which is partly to do with the lower angle of view, and something else that gives this a more metaphysical aspect. Or that might just be me. I didn't originally plan to leave the fabric unglazed, but I liked the grey, so I left it. Vote for your favourite!

Now the paintings have to be left to dry before varnishing. At least 6 months is recommended, but I paint very thinly, so these should be OK to varnish a lot sooner. I will probably leave for a month before varnishing. A temporary varnish (e.g. re-touching varnish) can be used if they need to be exhibited before then.

Step by step oil painting: Step 1

I thought I would record progress on a new oil painting as I go along for you good people. To get the subject I set up a still-life in the studio and took photographs. Actually several different set-ups. I then transferred photos to my laptop. I chose what I thought would make a good painting and did some editing in Pixelmator on light levels, cropping, colours etc. I won't show the photo just yet as this would spoil the surprise. I then printed out at the size I wanted (to fit on a 8x10" canvas board).

To transfer to the canvas I traced main shapes from the printout on tracing paper. I covered the back of the tracing paper with compressed charcoal and retraced over the front to leave faint charcoal lines on the canvas. I then painted an underpainting using Acrylic paint. This is really quick and dries almost instantly. It is fine to paint oils over Acrylic and is basically a shortcut. This also means that I have a coloured ground to work on rather than the white canvas. See Figure- Step 1.

Step 1 - Acrylic underpainting

I used a leaf green/yellow/white mix for the lemons (you guessed!) and a grey (black/white mixes!) for everything else. I then added white highlights to the lemons. I plan to glaze over the lemons using transparent oils, so the underpainting needs to be high key (light), as glazing can only darken. Already the painting is taking shape and it would be easy to make big changes (or scrap altogether) at this stage without too much heartache. A trick is to look at the painting from afar. If it already looks good then the general composition and lights/darks are working and you could be on to a winner. I'm happy enough with it. There is sufficient border to take a frame rebate without squeezing the main subject (which is often overlooked when you first start painting). This underpainting could be worked on straight away, but I'm taking a break.

New purchase

New purchase: "Pomegranates" by Brian Gorst. See Brian's new website here.

"Pomegranates", Oil on canvas board, Brian Gorst 2009

New work: Cider apples and brambles

I collected fallen apples from a nearby cider orchard (thank you Knight's Cider!) and some brambles (or blackberries for those non-Scots) and set up a still life in the studio. The painting below was painted on plywood board (Tintoretto panels from GreatArt.co.uk).

Still life with cider apples and brambles. Oil on board. 18cm x 12cm. (c) Mike Todd 2008.