Waiting for the Bus - Cape Town

This is for Virtual Paintout March 2011 challenge, Cape Town, South Africa. It's oil on 10x12 canvas board.

This month I almost ran out of time to paint with the move, renovations and all the distractions that come along. I finally got myself to sit down to look for a scene and paint it. I found a group of school kids at the Table Mountain Reserve in Cape Town, and saw these three boys sitting around waiting for the bus. (ref photo) I thought it was interesting because of the three boys against a scenic background, while one boy sat on a trash can, as well as the light vs dark contrast and red vs green contrast. I added an extra person on the right to add additional interest to the composition.

Because of the darker tone of many of the elements in this painting, I prepared my canvas with a brownish black acrylic ground. The background, including the mountains and city, was painted using various shades and tones of grey. The foreground people are painted using more intense color, such as madder, alizarin, ultramarine violet, raw and burnt umber, prussian blue, Winsor red, vermilion, lemon yellow, naples yellow and white.

Three Creamers

This is for Rookie Painter March 2011 challenge - Three Creamers. It's oil on 8x10 canvas panel.

The original picture had three creamers of approximately the same sizes sitting in a straight line against a white background and on a white table top. (ref photo) I wanted to change around the composition to make it more interesting. I made the creamers different sizes: the blue one taller, brown one smaller.

I originally painted the creamers with a white background. However, I thought the white background made the whole painting very bright, so bright that I almost had to squint my eyes to look at the painting. So I decided to tone down the background with gray plus prussian blue. I decided on a cold blue gray so that to compliment the orange and brown creamers.

My palette included torrid gray, prussian blue, cadmium orange, Winsor dark red, alizarin, burnt sienna, terra rosa, Indian red, ultramarine violet, ultramarine blue, ceruoleum, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow and white. I also add a touch of Renaissance Gold (mixed in with ultramarine blue and yellow) for the gold handle for the blue creamer.

Love From Me Project

I'm so honored to be included in this very worthwhile endeavor - Love From Me Project. The project includes publishing an art book to provide inspiration to people going through personal challenges, as well as to raise money for a cancer charity. (Click here for more detail) One of my painting that will be included in this book - Catch the Wave from the June 2010 Virtual Paintout challenge. I've also written a little something to go with the painting.

Catch the Wave
With all the ups and downs in life,

sometimes we need to sit back and

recuperate,

before we can get back and once again

catch the wave.

P.S.
I'm so honored to have one more painting included in this project. A cropped version of "Ripples", see below, will be included as the back cover of the book. I'm glad that a simple painting like Ripples can generate people's interest. Here's a little something that goes along with Ripples.

Ripples

Love is like dropping a pebble into a pond,

its impact ripples through far and beyond.