Stalled Out on Boardwalk - 6x8 Oil Painting

6"x8" oil painting on archival canvas panel
SOLD

It's been a while since I've painted a still life and I wanted to do something a little different from my normal subjects. I have to say this little metal car from Monopoly was fun to paint. I'd like to try painting a few more of the game pieces from Monopoly, and other games, in this smaller scale.

Monopoly: Go Directly To Jail - 24x24 Oil Painting

24"x24" oil painting on stretched canvas
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“Everything else you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood”- Beryl Bainbridge

I'm not sure why I torture myself by picking a composition with so much TEXT, but there it is. I think this sort of thing would be much simpler on a smooth board versus a canvas, but I'm just too partial to canvas and I won't try to fight it. I've learned some things from this painting, and that includes the reminder that I should always mix MUCH more of that light green background color than I imagine I'll need. I didn't really get that until a few layers in.

My next one will be similar to this but in an 18x24 size, focusing on the same area of the board but with a slightly different setup. But that one might be awhile. I still have to recover from this one.

Cupcakes in a Row - 18x24 Oil Painting

18"x24" oil painting on stretched canvas
SOLD

Since I have a sweet tooth that's always "on", I got pretty excited when I saw the current challenge on DSFDF of a bunch of cupcakes in a row. It seemed like the perfect exercise to work on values, which is an area I've been trying to improve on. I thought this photo would look really nice as a HUGE painting, but since I'm working under time limits, 18"x24" was as far as I wanted to go.

I hope everyone had a great labor day weekend!

Monopoly

24x24 on stretched canvas
SOLD

I had so much with the Game of Life painting I did a few weeks ago that I wanted to do another based on a board game, especially since everyone that looked at my Life painting accidentally kept calling it Monopoly instead (love you, Mom). I've always liked playing with the Scottish Terrier dog token so he was the one I gravitated toward painting, especially after I saw the fun shadow he cast when I was taking my reference photos.

Painting text is still such a beast to me! Hopefully practice makes perfect eventually.

I'd like to do a whole series of board game paintings. What were or are some of your favorites? My husband and I were discussing Clue last night and I thought it could have some fun set ups, and I have some great memories of it. I'd also love to find some vintage copies of popular games that have had facelifts over the years.

Apple in Bowl

24x24 on stretched canvas
SOLD

This painting was a bit of a pain to photograph and came out kind of grainy, and I didn't want to mess around with it too much more since it's still wet. I'll try again in a few days for a better one.

I've had this striped bowl for years and I've used it in previous still life setups. I love all the colors so I couldn't help but use it again for this painting.

The Game of Life

24x24 on stretched canvas
SOLD

I've been working on this painting for the last few days which is why I haven't posted as many other pieces this last week. This subject was definitely outside of the box for me, but that's why I chose it. It posed a lot of challenges that I was curious enough to try, like the faux shadows of the board game itself against the actual cast shadows of the objects on it. And all that lettering! I've never really attempted a painting with so much text on it before. Also, many of my paintings are more subtle color mixes so this one, with all its loud colors, gave me something to think about.

I'd love to hunt down an antique version of the game and paint it next time.

Backlit Glass Bottle

4x6 on canvas panel
SOLD

I have all these little glass bottles I collected as a teenager and realized they would be great for getting in practice painting clear and colored glass. Generally I'm not a big collector of random stuff or knick knacks so getting inspiration from objects around my home can be difficult for me, especially since I tend to overlook things I've already seen a billion times. When I first started painting still lifes I saw inspiration everywhere, so I know I just need to retrain my creative eye.

Paintbrush

4x6 on canvas panel
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This was one of those paintings I mentioned that took a lot of passes and patience before I was happy with the result. It's such a simple subject, but I knew the metal ferrule would be a challenge for me. (And it was!)

Three Chocolates

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

In honor of Valentine's Day and its ability to soothe the sweet tooth in all of us, I decided to do this little painting of three chocolates in a row awaiting their fate.

Cracked Egg on a Plate

6x6 on 1 1/2" thick canvas
SOLD

First, let me apologize if you subscribe to my blog feed and are getting a bunch of weird out of date posts. I'm going back through and merging my blog posts from my previous blog and cleaning up a lot of older posts. Everything should hopefully be in working order from here on out.

This painting was done on linen canvas, which I haven't really worked with much. I liked the difference in texture from my regular canvas and the fact that I didn't have to gesso it with an undercolor before working with it.

Cracked Egg

6x8 on stretched canvas
SOLD

A few days back I mentioned that I was going to attempt a few more egg paintings. I painted this on Saturday but wanted to give it some time to dry before listing it. The egg yolk is always the most fun part to me, and the shell is always the most challenging, along with keeping the values on the lighter side. In paintings like this I definitely find that it helps to lay out my color mixes on my palette before I start painting. I have another egg painting for tomorrow!