sketchbook pages

Painted these hellebores with sumi brush and ink. Been a while since I used a sumi brush so my lines are clunky. Definitely want to practice getting a finer, more fluid line.

Below: pencil.

sketchbook pages

A couple of sketches I did while in a zoom meeting.

weekly still life

                          Wip 12x12

Last winter my friend Gina and I planned to get together and paint a still life each week. We never managed it!

This winter, so far, we've pulled it off three times.

It's good because I think we do each spend some time each week thinking about still life setups.

pattern exercise

I don't have many patterned cloths, if you don't count stripes. Always on the lookout for them to hoard for possible still lifes as I love patterns in paintings ... Matisse, Vuillard, Janet Fish ...

I rarely tackle patterns--i think they will be too "hard."

In the still life class I took with her last year Susan Abbott gave us an exercise that I think will help me get over my reluctance: Paint a pattern without drawing it. Just work your way through it, remembering there's no reason for it to be perfect!

Actually, it occurs to me I didn't quite do what she suggested, I didn't find the shapes by painting the negative spaces-- which are white here--but painting the shapes without drawing you do have to consider the negative spaces as you go.

I messed up here and there, but what an engaging way to spend a half hour or so.

Below is the bit of fabric painted in Susan's class.