Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a good holiday and New Year and are now ready to get back to work.

I have had many requests to do another still life, your wish is my demand. I spent part of my vacation looking for what I hope is a perfect setup for the still life but you need to be aware that because it is a still life - meaning that you work from the actual things - there will be no line drawing for you to copy or transfer. I do suggest that for the first class that you have paper and pencil to do some sketches to determine whether you want to do vertical or horizontal, a camera, preferable with a zoom, to take a photo  from where you are when you start the painting and maybe get a couple smaller canvases to do some small quick paintings to work out design problems before you start painting.

This is good practice for all paintings including if you want to do plein air. It is a lot different working from a subject that is in the 3 dimensional world and working from a flat 2D photo, even under the controlled setting of a studio. This will be a challenge for many of you but one I'm sure you are up to.

I am posting a couple photos here to show that there is a difference between a vertical and horizontal composition and you may use them as reference only because they won't be in the same position you will see them in class. I'm not even going to use them for the painting I will be doing in class.

Another thing you may want to think about is what kind of background do you want? This is a suggestion especially for my students who have been with me for a while, yes, you can follow along with what I do but you may also want to find something different for your own needs. I will talk about that more in class.

I am looking forward to the start of class, I really want to get started on this project. See you all soon.