Welcome to Margie Guyot's updated blogsite! I do plein air landscapes plus studio paintings of still lifes in oil. You may still visit my older blog (greatlittleoilpaintings.blogspot.com) to see everything painted prior to 2010.
I'm running way behind on my posts again! If you knew how stale these bagels really were when I painted them, you'd laugh. Like rocks. But they still looked good! It was a nice change from painting cupcakes. These came from Johann's Bakery in Petoskey. I'm sure they're wonderful bagels when fresh. I soaked these in a glass of water for a while, then gave them to the chickens.
"Cupcake Party" -- oil on canvas 30x40" -- Margie Guyot
After finishing painting just about every variety of cupcakes that Simplycupcakes makes, I wanted to pull them all (OK, most) together for a bigger still life painting. That's a vintage tablecloth under everything. I loved the cheery tulips in it. Had to throw a little vase of real tulips in as well, along with my favorite frog teapot, sugar and creamer set.
We only had a couple days of sun while I was painting this, so every time the sun came out, I focused on painting the shadow shapes. I think it's the shadow/light patterns that give a painting a feeling of reality.
I'd never painted Depression glass dishes in the sunlight before, and they were an interesting challenge. This painting has a feeling of "gay chaos" in it -- but isn't a good party a sense of "gay chaos"?
"Cherry Danish" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot
Glad to be finished painting "Hint of Mint", I turned to a cherry danish I'd bought up at Johann's Bakery in Petoskey. I'd bought it at least a week ago, but heck -- it still looked pretty good. So I painted it, using the last of the 6x6" canvases. It was so much fun to do! I'll probably start a "pastry" series next, followed by slices of pie, slices of cake, flowers, maybe even fishing lures.
Jerry's Artarama put on a huge sale on their 6x6" canvases, so I ordered 90 more. Look out, world!
"Hint of Mint #4" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot
"Hint of Mint #5" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot
"Hint of Mint #6" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot
"Hint of Mint #7" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot
When I'd realized I'd sold the first 3 versions of "Hint of Mint", I realized uh-oh: I needed to paint more for some upcoming shows! So I made a mad dash to Traverse City, home of Simplycupcakes. The weather's been typically lousy (dark, gloomy, spitting snow), and given the choice between doing housework and painting -- well, there's no contest!
This is such a beautiful-looking cupcake to paint! From Simplycupcakes, in Traverse City, Michigan. It's made of strawberry cake, topped with chocolate ganache, strawberry buttercream and a slice of a fresh strawberry. I'd painted a couple of this one the day before and removed the strawberry at the end of the session. Fed it to Henny Penny, the studio chicken. These cupcakes hold up remarkably well, but I knew the strawberry slice would turn it funky in a hurry.
People ask why I'm painting multiple versions of cupcakes. Well, I've got 5 shows this year and I need cupcakes in just about every one of them. It's kind of a fun break, painting small canvases. I've done so many large still life paintings, it's kind of a lark to work differently. Each time I finish a canvas, I turn the cupcake a little to see a completely different view. It's not like I'm copying the same finished painting. THAT would be way too boring.
Len Mayhew, owner and baker at Simplycupcakes, made this gorgeous cupcake this morning. Yes, that's a slice of fresh strawberry on the top. Couldn't dilly-dally -- had to paint these as soon as I got home. It's made from strawberry cake (!), with chocolate ganache, strawberry buttercream, fresh strawberry slice and sprinkles of some kind of sugar (little white balls). It smells wonderful!
It was a typically cloudy, dreary day. By 4 PM I had to quit painting -- it was just too dark to see what I was doing. Since I plan on doing more paintings from this one, I removed the strawberry slice and gave it to Henny Penny, my studio chicken. Packed the cupcake safely away (so the studio kitties won't lick it). I've always got strawberries in the fridge, so I can easily cut a replacement.
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