"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.  

Dark Red Geranium

"Dark Red Geranium" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

Last year I remembered seeing some very deep red geraniums.  All I had here were the brigher, more orange-red varieties.  I looked at every plant nursery around before I finally found a plant up in Harbor Springs.  I save geraniums from year to year, keeping them in pots on the windowsills in my studio.  

I'm enjoying painting geraniums!  At first they were rather intimidating.  For the first portion of the painting, it looks very discouraging -- just colored blobs!  It's the last couple minutes, though, with the little details, that turn it into something that "actually looks like something"!

Geraniums

 "Geranium #1" -- oil on canvas 6x6"

"Geranium #2" -- oil on canvas 6x6"

 

"Geranium #3" -- oil on canvas 6x6"

 

"Geranium #4" -- oil on canvas 6x6"

 

The windowsills in my studio building are lined with pots of geraniums.  Some are 5 years old.  Some were picked up out of the trash and potted.  I haul them out to the patio in June and haul back into the studio in September.  They seem to like the south light and bloom like crazy all winter.  After painting some roses, I thought why not try painting geraniums?  My friend Jerry dislikes geraniums, calling them "old lady flowers".  But I love their colors!  

Some colors can't be mixed.  The great still life painter, Janet Fish, said that she owns every shade of red and yellow that's made.  One of the tube colors that I've found invaluable for times like this is "Aurora Pink".  It's a neon-pink that is dazzling.  Most pinks are impossible to mix.  Red and white oil paint, mixed, usually turns muddy.

 

For about the first 95% of the painting, it looks like a dreadful mess.  Just blobs of color.  It's the last few strokes of detail that make them look like anything recognizable.  Again, a good part of making a successful painting is controlling one's panic!

 

Decided I needed more different colored models to work from, so I drove to Pine Hill Nursery for more last night.  They're only 10 minutes away.  My favorite store!

Fiesta!

"Fiesta!" -- oil on canvas -- 40x60" -- Margie Guyot

Last summer I snagged this Mexican sombrero at a yard sale in Glen Arbor.  I just knew it would end up in a painting.  It's a velvety-red, trimmed in gold and silver, with silver sequins.  Very heavy -- I don't know how the guys can stand to wear them!

With the red sombrero as a starting point, I knew I wanted this still life to have a red-green theme.  Years ago I realized that the paintings that seemed to "sing" to me, when I'd walk into a gallery, were the ones that made a big use of the complementary colors.  So I try to do that -- when I think of it.  

Aren't those cool pumpkins?  I'd bought them earlier this fall from 2 young boys in Elk Rapids.  I'd just used the striped one in a still life a couple weeks ago and thought I'd like to use it again -- before it rots.  The vintage, reindeer glasses were found in an antique store up in Pellston.  Green-striped afghan from a resale shop in Ellsworth.  It's just endless -- the possibilities from all kinds of junk!

Every year I bring my geraniums inside and set them on the studio windowsill.  Why buy new?  Some of them are 5 years old.  

What to put in the space under the table?  It's always a question nagging me.  This time I painted a portrait of "Miss America", one of my studio cats.  She (really a he!) was named for her pretty, little face.  I had to hold her in the crook of my left arm, baby doll style, to get a good look at her face while I painted.

Geraniums and Frog

"Geraniums and Frog" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas panel -- 8x10" -- Margie Guyot

After finishing painting "Porch Ornaments", I looked down and saw this at my feet.  I had an hour or so before I had to frame things and drive back to Petoskey, so why not go for a third painting?  It had been such a dark, gloomy day, I thought it would be nice to do a funny, cheery painting.