Still life

I recently watched a demo of Still life painting at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio.  The demo was by Jeff Legg and I decided on the spot if there was room in the class for me, I was in!  Fortunately, there was and I spent the rest of the week learning more about the art of painting and setting up Still life. 

This first painting was composed during the class; the setup was in a three-sided box with controlled lighting.

The next two are the same painting; the first version is after receiving a critique from Jeff to enhance the darks and shadows.  The version below is the original painting using a tensor lamp and ambient light

More:  As a former watercolor painter, I had to get it into my head that it was okay to use black.  No, not just black, that deadens the color; Black with Alizarin, or black with yellow; black and raw umber make a beautiful background, add white and yellow ochre and you have a lighter more neutral foreground.  Whew!  Once I got my head around this, I was off and running.
More to come....

Quince (done in a controlled setting)

After (darker)

Two pears and a bowl, before a bit of color change