"Nautilus"

After completing this painting I realized that I had inadvertently set up the two bowls to look like a nautilus shell. I'd been wanting to use the wooden bowl in a painting for some time but I didn't want to fill the entire thing up with fruit, hence the bowl within a bowl arrangement. I really pushed the rounding of the forms in this one,I'm not sure the photo does it justice, but it was the best I could do. I just spent three hours fiddling around with photoshop trying to get something close to the painting. I've never had this much trouble before. I couldn't get the color and highlights on the oranges to look right and when I finally did the background became a problem. What I finally ended up with was a bit of a compromise between the two. Anyways I think it turned out to be one of my more interesting compositions and I really had a blast painting it.

"Bamboo and Saki Cups"

This is my latest effort in my series of daylight paintings. The background is actually a little darker than it appears here, but otherwise it's pretty close. The hardest part about this one was getting the cups to have the right tonality and temperature. One of the interesting things about working in layers is that you can change the temperature by glazing or scumbling. A light color over a dark will appear cool and the reverse is true to get warmth.

I purchased the saki cups at this auction that I occasionally attend. It's run by this small church that I told my wife I suspect they may be "moonies".The auctioneer "Bud" is quite a character and has a pretty fierce scowl when he feels a piece is being undersold. It's actually a lot of fun. I have a rule to never bid more than ten bucks for an item which has caused me to lose a few bidding wars.

One item in particular that I wanted was this antique pool cue, that came with a worn down plush leather and velvet case. When the bid started getting up to my limit, I knew that I wasn't going to get it. Eventually it went for 25.00. The saki cups I got for a dollar! I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but then I saw this bamboo plant in a store and something clicked. After setting up the composition I could tell something was missing so I went looking for a blue cloth but ended up grabbing a tie instead. I'm not sure why I wrapped it around the cup but it sort of reminds me of when I was a kid taking karate lessons and how I would knot the belt around my waist.