This is where I am in the process of painting the still life of garlic scapes, pepper, and greens. I realized that the greens are probably chard not kale and need to be suggested rather than be fully detailed all over, because the details are only important around the focal area.
What do you think?
Farmers’ Market Scapes.
I’ve put the final touches on this painting and it will be one of the ones that I submit to the Arts International juried show this month. This show allows submission of three pieces for one price, so it will be this, Contemplation (the water scene) and one other yet to be determined.
I cleaned up the edges on the scapes and brought out more of the light highlights and shadows, and pulled out some highlights in the kale. This was challenging, and fun, and when I started, I never in my wildest imaginations thought it would have such a dark purplish background, but I think it makes the veggies pop.
It shines with a white double mat, and would make a lovely spot of color in someone’s kitchen!
If you’d like to see previous posts on this process, see Stages four and five and The next stages of the scapes and Scapes anyone?
And I have to tell you, the scapes (the curling tops of garlic plants) are quite tasty cooked and keep very well in the veggie drawer in the refrigerator. I quite enjoy painting veggies and fruit. I sense a series coming on….stay tuned…
I’m always glad to hear from you, so please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Thank you for stopping by!
Isn’t it funny how things just seem to come together? Last month I started working and blogging about scapes, and how really cool they are, and today I was working on finishing touches on the painting and this FABULOUS blogpost Great Scape came up on my reader.Please click on it to view a gorgeous photo of a “rollercoast” of scapes from the blog Leaf and Twig (which I totally enjoy reading daily!)
Almost finished this 11″ x 14″ watercolor of a farmer’s market collection of scapes, pepper, and kale. Click on image to view larger.
So after spending a good deal of time yesterday on the business end of painting, it was nice to get in painting time today. Please let me know what you think. I need some fresh perspectives on it.
This won’t be in next month’s show, but the deadline is rapidly approaching (mid August) for submissions to Arts International, the juried show put on annually by the EP Art Association. So I will be working on it and others hoping to have some ready to submit for that show. It’s a busy summer here!
And with traveling, putting together frames/mats/paintings, ordering cards and business cards, I have been remiss in keeping up with reading art blogs…so that’s next on the agenda. I so appreciate the support of other bloggers, and artists in particular, and I miss keeping up on what y’all are doing!
art show in El Paso, Texas. Click on image to view larger.
Scapes painting stage 4. Click on image to view larger.
As you can see, if you compare with the last post, I’ve added some darks into the kale and made it so much more lively! The darks I used were a mix of thalo green blue shade and quinacridone magenta. This is a great dark combination that’s also transparent, and I plan on using it in the background along with charging into it some other colors used in the existing veggies to give it color harmony.
Scapes painting stage 5, with a dramatic background! Click on image to view larger
And you can see it here, I’ve taken the plunge and started on the background. I think I’m going to be happy with it and you can see that the background is really broken up into sections which is nice. I can work on parts and soften the edge where they would join up so that there isn’t a hard line where they meet. you can see I did that to the left of the pepper stem.
I plan on using this background with other colors mingled in with it to cover all the area where the scapes are, and I think the dark colors will make the sinewy snakelike scapes “pop”
What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by, and as always, I enjoy reading your comments, critiques, suggestions, thoughts…
Scapes painting stage 2. click on image to view larger
Here are some further photos of stages in the painting. At this stage I hopedit could be ok, but I felt overwhelmed by I put down the colors of the kale but was getting lost in the curves, ruffles, and edges. After doing anything BUT painting on this — i.e. cleaning the baseboards, organizing closets, I think some of you will understand these impulses! — I realized I need to look at each section and develop it in an attempt to not get lost. Following the process one would use to paint petals of a flower. Work on each and build it up to a certain level, what feels right, and then do another.
Scapes painting stage 3. Click on image to view larger
So here’s the following stage. I worked on the swirl of the bud of the scape, to the left of the pepper. It needs a bit more refining but it’s more true to the spiral.
I worked on various sections of the leaf. I knew I wanted the detail where it would catch your eye in the middle of the painting, near the red pepper — because red and green are complements so they “zing” against each other and that draws your eye. I knew I didn’t want a lot of detail, at least not now, in the darker, blue green shadows in the bottom right corner. With the advice and support of great friends in my painting group — you know who you are! — they counseled me on lifting out some lights, and going in later with the DARKS to give the leaf depth. Right now it is all medium values, if you squint at it, the kale is all one value, no darks in it so spike it up!
So that’s what’s coming next… stay tuned….
Thanks for stopping by. I’d love to hear from you — your thoughts, reactions, advice, critique! it’s all welcome.
My own photo reference of scapes, pepper and kale from farmer’s market
No, not EScapes, but scapes. Have you heard of them? I hadn’t until visiting a farmer’s market recently and picking up these curvy stems of the garlic plant that just make me smile! You can chop them up into salads (very strong) or saute them as a milder garlic taste. And when their heads pop open with a bit of the flower beginning — see the bulge to the left of the pepper — it’s enchanting.
Knowing I wouldn’t be able to do these in life before they wilted and dried, I decided to pose some still lifes, with the light source to the left. For “fun” I added the kale bunch, and that’s proving to be QUITE the challenge to paint!
Value sketch of scapes, pepper and kale
I thought I’d share a bit of the process with you on how I go from a photo to starting the painting. I first make a small sketch with values to understand the shapes, curves, shadows and other elements that will make the objects recognizable. This was in my sketch book. I added the grid on top later, in order to enlarge the drawing to fit the selected paper size, in this case 11″ x 15″ (or what is called a “quarter sheet” of watercolor paper, that has traditionally been made in sheets that are 22″ x 30″.
By making the grid and putting in a grid on the larger paper, it’s a matter of transferring lines from one square to a larger one, by seeing where the drawing of the left bulge of the pepper, for example, intersects the grid lines in the smaller version and making it fit a similar dimension in the larger grid opening.
enlarged sketch for quarter sheet of watercolor paper. Simplified connection of darker and lighter values
portion of enlarged sketch on the lightbox to transfer to watercolor paper.
While I’m doing this I’m not restricted to how I drew it originally but because I’m understanding it better, I can omit some lines, make less but cleaner shapes, connect shapes of certain values together to make other more interesting shapes, etc. This is an ongoing learning process for me on how to do that, and I perhaps didn’t do it enough.
Then I trace the major lines with a darker pen or maker in order to see them more clearly when I place them on my light box and put the thicker watercolor paper on top to trace the image with a mechanical pencil onto the paper. here’s a snippet of how that looks.
early stage of watercolor painting of scapes, pepper, and kale
And now the fun part, to start painting! Here’s the first pass of building up color on the pepper and the scapes and putting in lights for the kale. I’m using hansa yellow and clear water for the highlights with warm reds (pyrrol orange and pyrrol scarlet) with a neutral Quinacridone red for the areas of each bulge that are facing the light. I use cooler reds for the sides away from the light (permanent rose, quinacridone magenta). I do each bulge (there must be a more precise word for these?) individually, charging them wet into wet to mingle the colors and the hard edges that form help separate one bulge from its neighbor.
Yellows glow through colors layered on top of them, such as blues or greens in this case, so we want the glow of the warm greens to contrast with the color blue greens and shadows in the kale leaves.
Stay tuned because I’ve done more work on this that I’ll talk about in the next post, on how I got “lost” in the kale leaves and found my way out! Thanks for stopping by. If you’d like to leave me a comment, I’d love to read it!
Rachel Murphree Watercolors 