Ok, no more cups. While I understand painting similar subjects more than once for practice, I must confess I am unable to maintain the attention span on them for very long. Which is why I have banned cups for this painting . . . . and fruit as well. Not knowing what else to paint, I turned to my 4yo Happy Cricket, aka, my new studio apprentice. She has been there offering to put away every item from the past several still lifes, made comments on every painting, whether in grisaille or color - often on both, and provided excellent studio company. With the subject left up to her, she promptly handed me her red pincushion, an item of pride for her as she has only recently learned to sew some stitches and started using a "real needle of Mom's".
I quickly discovered the easy task that I thought was set up, wasn't so easy. There is something about a red pincushion that defies the ability to see value. It's too distracting! Every time I would focus on a different part of the painting, my eye kept going back to that bright red.
Then there were the challenges of the folded cloth, which I tried to be painterly about and not blend overly much. Not sure how I succeeded. And while I may have gotten the sheen of the metal scissors in the grisaille painting, I believe any good points were blotted out by the time I finished the color painting.
All in all, I'm giving myself a C. My studio apprentice, however, gets an A for her help and the challenge!
Comments