Still Life Drawing and Painting

Recently I spent two weekends at the Strathnairn Arts Centre in Canberra at workshops on still life given by Michael Winters.  We were studying the work of Morandi, Matisse and Margaret Olley.  There were three still life setups. The first weekend was spent rotating between these setups and drawing compositions A2 size in charcoal and coloured pencils in the style of the three artists.  This was not easy but it was an excellent exercise and took me out of my comfort zone.  I then made small paintings in acrylic (some did oil) and one large one supposed to be in Margaret Olley's style, beginning with a blue tonal study as the base and using a limited palette.  These are the artworks I did - some more successful than others.

This is the Matisse style in charcoal and coloured pencil - details are omitted to show Matisse's love of colour, shape and line.  Could not get saturated colour with coloured pencils.

This is my Matisse style painting in acrylics.  I enjoyed the designing and working in saturated colours here - somewhat adventurous but that is what I prefer to do.






















 
 This is my charcoal drawing of a set up of bottles and cans that Morandi drew every day for many years.  There was a light at the left throwing shadows.










Below is the acrylic painting I did of a different composition of the bottles and cans - not quite monochrome  but limited palette of more neutral colours.

This is the charcoal and coloured pencil drawing A2 size of a compostion from the Margaret Olley still life set up.  It was quite complex and I had to adjust to a more painterly style than I am used to.

This is my acrylic painitng of a compostion from the drawing above.  I was again challenged by a more painterly style to reflect Margaret Olley.

This is the first layer of my larger acrylic painting on canvas - using blue to map in the tones before adding colour.





This is my final painting, building on the tonal study (above).  The palette was limited to two blues, one violet and two yellows.  At the end I decided to add a little red which I am happy with.  I quite liked this painting and have hung it in my bedroom, removing something that had been there 30 years!