"Grapes and Pink Glass Bowl"

"Grapes and Pink Glass Bowl" -- oil on canvas 30x30" -- Margie Guyot

When I set up this still life, it looked so complicated, I didn't know if I could pull it off.  Could I finish it before the grapes rotted?  I'm always challenging myself, though, so I just ignore my fears and start.  And how do I start?  Always with something I know: using a yardstick, I lightly draw in the crosshairs onto the canvas.  Looking through my little viewfinder, I try to determine just where the center  point is.  Seemed to me the center point was on the plastic bag.  I put a little mark of paint right there.

Before I figured out the trick of marking the center point, I'd have trouble fitting everything into the still life.  Half of my composition would run off the canvas!  I'm always looking through the viewfinder, trying to estimate whether something is 1/2 or 1/3 of the way up or down, right or left.  And I do a lot of measuring, using my paintbrush at arm's length, comparing distances and sizes to objects.  In this painting, my "unit of measure" was the green apple at the upper right.  Everything related to the size of that apple. 

It's a good way to control one's panic, comparing everything in a painting to one object's size. 

Recently I was given 2 young cats to watch for a friend for the next 6 months.  Of course I'm figuring it will be a permanent thing.  The kitties were fascinated by the grapes in the plastic bags.  They kept trying to fish grapes out and bat them around.  Every afternoon when I quit painting, I had to cover the setup with a tablecloth to keep the kitties from destroying it.  And I always clean off my palette and park it way up high, where Flower and Butterfly can't walk all over it.

I've found resale shops sometimes have very colorful (and ghastly!) silk scarves, quite cheap.  I liked the purple and red scarf.  I wouldn't be caught dead in it, but it added something to the  painting.   The bright reds of the scarf were echoed in the red geranium blossoms.  My studio windowsills are lined with geraniums all winter, where they bloom like mad.  

"Honeycrisps #2"

"Honeycrisps #2" -- oil on canvas 24x24" -- Margie Guyot

This is my favorite variety of apple!  It tastes like its name: sweet and crisp.  Lately I've been on a pumpkin/gourd/apple kick.  The most recent painting, "Granny Smiths", featured green apples on a red and white tablecloth.  I'm a huge fan of paintings done in contrasting colors, so I had to follow that painting with red apples on a green tablecloth.

This tablecloth was an antique store find.  When I pulled it out, I hesitated because of the gold.  But the longer I looked at the honeycrisps, the more yellow and gold I saw in them.  So I think it was a good match.

My studio is in NW Michigan, along the coastline of Lake Michigan.  It's winter here and the skies are overcast about 98% of the time.  Summers are a joy, but winters are pretty gloomy.  So it's a rare thing to see strong, bright sunlight and shadow patterns in my still lifes -- unless I invent them.

Years ago when I was visiting galleries out West, I was very impressed with the paintings of the American Impressionists and master painters of the Old West.  They were so good at painting cloth!  I'd stand right up to the paintings, studying how they painted fabric folds.  More than once I set off an alarm by standing too close.  But at least I got a good look at how they did it.

I always love challenging myself, so I never shy away from painting wrinkled, mussed-up tablecloths!  Some people take photos and then project and trace, but I work from life.  I do use a little viewfinder to help compose the painting.  There are generally a lot of wipe-outs when I'm laying in the design, but I'm used to that, so I don't panic.  Heck, it's more fun that shoveling out the chicken coop!

I must admit, though, the pattern of this tablecloth was about to drive me mad!

"Honeycrisp"

"Honeycrisp" -- oil on canvas 18x24" -- Margie Guyot

My favorite apple variety, the Honeycrisp!  With the wind howling and snow blowing, it seemed to be the perfect way to spend a few days, holing up in my studio, painting apples.  That's a resale shop glass bowl.  I'd used it in a a painting right before this.  It's fun to paint -- I like the way it distorts.

Honeycrisp apples may not be the prettiest apples out there, but they're the tastiest.  They always sell out before any of the other varieties.  

Most of the time it's overcast in winter up this way (northern Michigan).  But one day the sun peeked out for about 5 minutes, and I saw small bits of sunlight hitting the table, filtering through the row of geraniums on the windowsill.  I thought the little spots of sunlight added a bit of charm.

About 99% of this painting was done with just one brush: a #6 Silverbrush flat.  It's a great brush.  Holds its knife-edge, allowing me to make long, thin strokes.  I'm not very fond of cleaning brushes, so that's probably why I will paint all day long with one brush.  OK, I did have to use one more, a Windsor-Newton Series 7 Kolinsky sable, only to sign my name.  

Some artists are very careful about cleaning brushes.  One friend gently wipes them with walnut oil, never turpentine, certainly never soap or detergent.  I guess I'm horribly brutal: I douse them with Dawn dish soap and scrub them mercilessly until they come clean.  And sometimes I add a drop of soap to the bristles and re-shape them, allowing them to dry that way.  I don't know who's right about this, but I guess the brush manufacturers like to sell me more brushes!

Apples and Gourds

"Apples and Gourds" -- oil on canvas 30x30" -- Margie Guyot

As soon as I began disassembling "Pumpkins and Gourds" (the most recent painting), I stopped and thought why not use most of the same objects, only re-arranged?  You probably have guessed by now that I'm fascinated by gourds!  I had a bag of honeycrisp apples in the refrigerator.  Glad I pulled them out, too.  Two of them were starting to spoil.  So the chickens got those.  And I can't remember where I got the hand-woven grass mat.  Either it was the one I bought in the jungle in Panama or else it's a garage-sale find (one somebody else bought in a jungle somewhere).  And what would one of my still lifes be without good-old turkey feathers? 

I just loved the way the glass bowl distorted things!  Not much going on up here, TV-wise, and house-cleaning is so boring, I'd much rather be trying to figure out how to paint distortions!  And it being winter, I have no distractions from gardening chores.  Although the chickens and rabbits (and cats!) do require a certain amount of attention each day.

I wasn't entirely sure I could do a satisfactory rendition of that grass mat!  Thank goodness I didn't allow myself to go into a panic.  Just about anything can be figured out if you stay calm!

One thing that surprised me was the beautiful green shadow that the green "glass" bowl cast, in the upper right.  It may not show up well in this photo, but it is noticeable in person.  And another surprise to me was the faint reddish tones in the shadows cast by the red apples.  This painting was done under natural light, next to a south-facing window.  It was overcast the entire time I painted; no strong sunlight/shadow patterns.  Maybe the reddish tones only showed up because of the softer light.  Maybe they would have disappeared in strong sunlight.

More Apples

 "Granny Smith #1" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

"Granny Smith #2" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

"Granny Smith #3" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

"Granny Smith #4" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Honeycrisp #4" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Honeycrisp #5" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Honeycrisp #6" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Zestar #2" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

"Antique #2" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

The weather's turned foul lately, so instead of going out plein air landscape painting, I'm hunkered down in the studio, painting some of our new crop of apples.  This area is known for its fruit production and the apples are the best!  My favorites are the honeycrisp and sweet tangoes.  To paint them, I set a cardboard box on the studio table, cover it with a while paper towel and paint it from life.

Ferry Road

"Ferry Road - October" -- plein air field study -- oil on birch panel 8x10"

This is the second painting I did yesterday, as part of the plein air paint-out, sponsored by the Charlevoix Circle of Arts.  My friend Al Maciag and I headed out on Ferry Road, south of Charlevoix, as it's one of our favorite areas to paint.  We love the views along the gravel road.  This is a big farming area, with lots of orchards and dairy farms.  I'm a real sucker for painting along roads!  

In the distance, on the right, is the edge of a cornfield.  The farmers are working hard this week, harvesting corn, as rain is moving in later in the week.  Several tractors and other big machinery passed by us as we painted along the road.  I'd pulled my car completely off the road, as it's not a good idea to be in a farmer's way!  We were serenaded by the roar of farm machinery the whole afternoon.

APPLES!

 "Antique #1" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Honeycrisp #1" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Honeycrisp #2" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Honeycrisp #3" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Zestar #1" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Zestar #2" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

"Sweet Tango" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

I hadn't painted an apple since about 1997.  Then about a week ago one of my friends, Caesar Citraro, asked if I'd give a short painting demonstration at a class he was teaching.  It was a cold, rainy week, so the demo painting would have to be inside.  What to paint?  

Then I realized that the Charlevoix Apple Fest was coming up fast (October 14 - 16).  Aha!  Why not paint apples?  

Compared to cupcakes, apples are a lot easier.  No pleated, paper cups, no intricate frosting swirls.  In short, apples are a JOY to paint!  I love their bright colors and shininess.

During the painting demo, another friend, Karen Kimmel, gave me a Sweet Tango apple to paint.  After the painting was done she cut it up for people to taste.  This is the first year for sweet tangoes around here.  Wow!  That's one crispy, juicy apple!  Given the choice between having $5 worth of dark chocolate and $5 worth of sweet tangoes, the apples win!

So with the arrival of new, juicier apples (such as honeycrisp, zestar and sweet tango), some of the older varieties are falling out of favor, it seems.  Another friend close by has acres of old apple trees.  They haven't been pruned or sprayed in years.  Still, they manage to produce apples.  And there are 4 apple trees on my property.  I haven't a clue what variety they are.  I don't spray them and they are covered in scabs, but once peeled, they still make a good pie.  Apples I don't know the names of I'm calling "Antique".  Stay tuned!