Tonight is the FUR, FEATHERS & FINS exhibition, juried by DeWitt Cheng, Curator of Stanford Art Spaces, at the Pacific Art League from 5:30 − 8:00 pm. I have three of my Birds & Teacup paintings in this show where a percentage of proceeds from sales will go to support the local Humane Society. I can’t wait to see this Pink Rhino #1 by Jihoon Choi!
Anemone Tea I – oil on board – 12″x12″
Petunia Tea I – oil on board – 12″x12″
Magnolia Tea II – oil on board – 12″x12″
Finally!
I found a rare hand-painted, antique lilac teacup from Bavaria called “Louise”. It’s funny how different flowers go in and out of fashion… but lilacs will never loose favor with me! The motif was listed as violets, but I knew better – a huge bush used to grow below my childhood window and their scent was always a sure sign of spring. In the Victorian language of flowers, the lilac signifies beauty and pride, and the purple lilac speaks of the first emotions of love.
I’m thinking a hummingbird or a goldfinch would go nicely with one of these shots for an upcoming painting.
Found these fabulous variegated tulips at Bunches the other day and while they’re not the exact striped tulip that is depicted on this Italian demitasse, they do make a lovely compliment. I took a number of shots to make sure I had the right composition when my bird comes along. The variegated tulip signifies “beautiful eyes” in the Victorian language of flowers, I wonder it this will helps me decide on a bird?
For those of you who have been following my Birds & Teacups series, you must know my process by now:
antique teacup ✔
matching bouquet ✔
combine above and wait for a bird (or two) to fly in and pose while I shoot with dramatic lighting ✘
combine above and shoot with dramatic lighting ✔
take pictures of local birds ✔
add birds (in a naturalistic way) into the still life using photoshop ✔
paint the heck out it ✔ ✔ ✔
But yesterday was something new…a scrub jay was busy caching acorns about my yard and I thought it would be a great opportunity to get a shot of the bird with the actual teacup I had planned on pairing it with. Usually I try to scale the bird to the teacup with the measurements listed on birding sites but this was going to give me a real life comparison, if only I could get them in the same shot! I filled the teacup with birdseed and acorns and retreated to my studio stoop with my telephoto lens on my camera. I had only a few minutes to wait before there was some interest…
…of course the jay wasn’t the only one who likes a tea party !