This painting was started in Putney at the workshop with Qiang Huang. There was a presentation and demonstration each day and we had about half a day to paint. We started a new painting each day so that we could incorporate Qiang's tips into our process. 

Set ups were designed with awareness of how the viewer's eye moves across the composition. Ideally a path of movement is created using contrasting values and bringing the eye toward a center of interest. So we worked on that each day with a new painting. This is the first painting I started in class and finished at home. Making tarnished copper look realistic was challenging. I see the clementine as the star of this still life. The bottle and the copper pot are standing by like proud parents but you can see by the reflections that they are pretty impressed with their darling clementine!

The second painting was a brighter composition with so many interesting surfaces to render: silver! glazed pottery! and orange peel! I'm not sure who is the star in this painting but I enjoyed getting these characters to work together! They are huddled together cooking up a plan!