Timothy Jones' Daily Painting Blog

Two Recent Pieces

Plums & Nectarines - oil on panel - 9"x12" © 2012 Timothy Jones


Sun Tea - 8"x10" - oil on panel - © 2012 Timothy Jones

These two were finished in the last week and were very enjoyable.

Strawberries in China Bowl

I thought I'd post some snapshots of the painting process for my most recent studio still life painting, Strawberries in China Bowl. I'll post a higher quality scan of the finished painting in a few days.

This is the initial value drawing, on a toned ground which I had applied earlier. This is mainly to nail down the shadows that anchor the image. I used a mixture of burnt sienna and cobalt blue for this stage, with alkyd medium, which improves flow and gives a nice translucence for mid-tones. It also speeds drying.

Here I've added some color to the background plane. This will be mostly covered with a translucent white later on, but I wanted the warm tone beneath. This is a mix of (I think) Naples Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange and Zinc White.

After the value drawing was dry, I began laying in local color, starting with heavily applied areas of saturated color and then lightly dry-brushing in the areas that transition into full shadow. Sorry for the awful color. This is an iPhone snap.

First layer of translucent green (chromium oxide + a little naples yellow and maybe a touch of burnt sienna). Again, poor color.

Here I've begun to pick out the lit areas of the leaves. These were built up in half a dozen different color layers, warmer and cooler.

I've roughed in the dish, but the edges will need quite a bit of refining and there are a number of important variations needed in the shadowed areas, where there is some terrific, subtle reflected light bouncing around.

And the finished product. The highlights and reflections on the strawberries came together pretty quickly. Truth be told, I sat down - just for a minute - to look at the unfinished painting this morning, just to get my brain stirring, and sure enough, I found a little something I thought should be tweaked right away. One thing led to another, and I finished it about 3:00 this afternoon, still in my pajamas. Welcome to my world.

This is the best color I have, at present, but these are all just snapshots. A scan is coming.

Some Recent Work...

...I've neglected to post.

These were quick studies and a joy to paint. The pallette knife is fairly new to me, but I find it very agreeable for landscapes.

Winter Mist - ©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
8" x 10" - oil on wood panel

This sunset occurred somewhere in Northeast Arkansas between Walnut Ridge and Newport, in the middle of winter. There had been some pretty heavy flooding that year, followed by very cold temperatures. The reflection on the water is actually from a farm field that had flooded and was frozen. I loved the way the sun looked through the icy fog.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/winter-mist-timothy-jones.html

 

This next one is part of my continuing series inspired by local food. Vanzant is a local orchard and I'm always excited when the peaches come in every summer. When you bite into one, the juice runs down to your elbow.

Vanzant Peaches - ©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
8" x 10" - oil on wood panel

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/vanzant-peaches-timothy-jones.html

On the Easel

Some in-progress snapshots of a current still life. 8" x 10".

After laying in darks, local color application starts with the items farthest back in the space. 

 
More local color, moving forward in space, with a little highlight on the apples. I like to let the toned ground show through in the mid-tones as much as possible. You can see it in the cast shadows of the two grapes at left, and the shadow under the curve of the bowl.

 
©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
Finished. Highlights are always last... 'cause that's the most fun! I had to really tone down and soften the painted design on the china bowl to make it sit back and behave. If I had painted it as I saw it, it would have attracted far too much attention to itself. I'll post a better scan, soon.

 

G.K. Chesterton Portrait - Finished (snapshot)

 
G.K. Chesterton - ©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
18" x 24" - Oil on Panel

 

grisalles underpainting

Hokaaaayyyy....

I think this is finished. If you'll compare the finished portrait with the last stage of the grisaille underpainting, you should notice a good deal of additional modeling, particularly on the face.

Any time you are adding some visual element from your imagination, as the color has been added here, you are basically operating from experience, example and what looks right. I kept the color pretty subtle, but didn't want to leave the image in it's tonal state. I wanted to warm up old Gilbert and make him appear more alive.

This is something of a gamble, but worth it. I showed the grisailles underpainting at our local art group, Artists of Northwest Arkansas. When I mentioned that I next planned to glaze in some color, I got a few comments along the lines of, "Are you sure you want to do that? I like the sepia look.". People wanted me to leave it be.

The tricky bit is to make sure that everything you add to a painting (any painting) improves it. Things don't always turn out that way, but that's the idea. I don't lay a brush to my painting unless I know what I want to accomplish with it. I try hard never, ever to simply thrash, - to move paint around and hope something great happens. If a painting is not coming together the way I thought, the best thing, I've found, is to walk away. Put it aside until it speaks to me again and tells me what it needs. Nine times out of ten it will become obvious with time.

Anyway, I think the color improved this image, at least it looks that way in person. This is a mere digital snapshot. I'll post a professional scan soon.



New Painting "Spring Berries"

 
©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
Spring Berries - 24" x 24" - Oil on Panel

Another nature study, one I've had in the works for a while (sorry, again, for the photo quality, but I'll have better ones posted, soon). I'm not sure what kind of berries these are, so feel free to educate me. So far, all I know is "not mulberries". Anyone?... Anyone?.. Bueller??...

New Painting "Forage"

 
©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones
Forage - 24" x 24" - Oil on Panel

This is only snapshot, as I'm not able to use Photoshop, at present. Better photos to come. It's a nature study of the kind I've always preferred to straight landscape. It was kind of funny in art school, because our painting class might take a field trip to a lake or some other scenic vista, and often I'd end up painting a few sticks on the ground by my easel, which I could hae done without leaving campus... or even changing out of my pajamas.

Finished "Pipe & Beer"

 
Pipe & Beer - Oil on Panel - 8" x 10"

©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones

 

Here is the finished piece from the "in progress" post, below. The ceramic shot glass on the left is from Germany and sports the city crest of Frankfurt. The glass is also from Germany. The pipe is a vintage Ben Wade Standard I restored a little while ago.

Melon Wedges

 
Melon Wedges - Oil on Panel - 8" x 10"

©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones

 

It's been a while since I have been regularly updating the Daily Painting blog, but with quite a lot of new work coming, this page should be hoppin' for some time.

The piece above is just a set-up in my home studio with a couple of slices of watermelon. All these new small pieces are painted directly from life and are drawn and laid out entirely by hand. This has its challenges, but I feel it facilitates a more direct creative response to the subject than working from a photo.

Finally!... Back in the Studio

These are a couple of recent small works. More in the pipeline!

 
Oranges & Raspberries - Oil on Panel - 8" x 10"

©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones

 

 
Lemons & Ceramic Bowl - Oil on Panel - 9" x 12"

©copyright 2011, Timothy Jones

 

These have just been made available to purchase as giclee reproductions at Fine Art America.

Incidentally, another piece of mine - Bleu Cheese & Beer - was recently selected as a featured artwork on the FAA homepage!