Lilac Tea I
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Tag Archives: Teacup
Anemone Tea I – WIP
Starting work on a new painting today, Anemone Tea is the latest in my Birds and Teacups series. I’ve paired a Steller’s Jay with an antique blue flow Chen-Si handle-less teacup and saucer and deep purple-blue anenomes, signifying forsaken love.
Sketching my subjet with thinned oils onto primed board.
Sketching in the background drawn drom design elements in the teacup and saucer.
Blocking in background tones.
Flushing out my bird.
Arranging my flowers and filling out my cup and sauser, staying loose.
Working lights and darks.
Still working it…
Detail in the sinking sun.
Poppy Teacups
Oh my, sometimes I can paralyze myself with possibility!
I love how these antique, eggshell thin, hand-painted teacups marked Germany and Nippon photographed in the early morning light with their requisite bouquet of freshly cut poppies! I better just pick a bird or two and get on with it … Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird? The poppy speaks of oblivion in the Victorian language of flowers, I wonder how I will bring that into a Birds and Teacups piece?
Lilac Teacup
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.
Violet Tea I
Magnolia Tea I
Painting of Violet Tea I
Another in my Birds & Teacups Series, Violet Tea I is still very much a work in progress…
Quick oil sketch…
Some lovely loose brush strokes suggesting violets…
Sketching in the background…
Filling in here and there…
Wiping off the gestural background that I was afraid was building up too much…
Blocking in some shadows and loosing my loose violets in a pursuit of realism…
Sharpening up details, but there’s such a long way to go in terms of drama (which will come from the lighting) in this piece…..I’ll post more when there’s more to see.
I didn’t know I was going to go for a greenish background! Such a busy image really called out for a simplified palette.
Here is the finished painting, which is now on exhibit at the Los Gatos Museum Gallery.
Magnolia Tea I (WIP)
A new Bird & Teacup on the easel today! This time it’s one of the little Dark-eyed Junkos that are always underfoot. This one is nestled into some branches of Star Magnolia that my friend painter Isaias Sandoval had cut for me from his tree. I love the way it’s coming together!
I sketched out the image in magenta oil…
Blocked in the darks and mid tones of the background loosely…
Worked in the branches…
Paid some attention to my bird…
Laying in the shadows in the petals and cup, they may look like white flowers but they have a huge range of warm and cool colors (pinks. yellows, greens, treys, lavenders and blues) in both the shadows…
And the highlights…
More tomorrow!
Dogwood Blushing
The dogwood outside my studio is glowing red now, by March it should be covered in lovely white blooms ….and of course I’ll be waiting with my teacup!!
Bamboo Tea I
Mushroom Tea I
Tulip Tea I
Bamboo Tea I (WIP)
I love to start a new painting with the new week – fresh start, fresh paint and all the those days stretching out before me like an empty road. I was able to race ahead with an image I’d already worked out…a cute, vintage Japanese bamboo demitasse filled with lucky bamboo against the lush pattern of a period cheongsam (that used to fit me). I loved this combination but wasn’t sure what bird to pair it with until I saw these Japanese White Eyes in Kawaii last winter (yes it takes me a while to get to all the ideas I have filled away). I love how their chartreuse feathers and little white eye rings act as a perfect compliment to the vignette.
As usual, I keep the initial oil sketch very loose, making sure only that the teacup is centered.
Next I loosely blocked in the background – there’s not much detail in the fabric anyway being some kind of watercolor looking satin and velvet burn out affair (I wish it sill fit me!).
The teacup came next.
Then the bamboo.
Then the birds were roughed in, all I could manage for the day.
Today, with the paint a bit set, I was able to come back in and start working on the details. At this point the birds are starting to develop personalities and the teacup is taking on it’s character. I’ll bring fresh eyes to it tomorrow, but it’s well on it way to being complete!
Mushroom Tea I (WIP)
This week before Halloween seems a good a time as any to begin work on my barn owl. This bird, who goes by the name of Owlivia at the local Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center, is paired with an Aynsley teacup (circa 1939) filled with trumpet mushrooms. I love the woodland magic of this combination – now to try and do it some justice with paint!
Loose sketch in oil.
Loose dark background.
Blocking in the owl.
Mushrooms.
Teacup.
Blocking in the table, feet and mushroom perch.
more tomorrow ( I hope) … the chainsaws are coming….
The chainsaws were only intermittent today and I was able to really start laying in some details in my owl and work on the appropriate background contrast to really make her glow. In the white of her face there are lots of other hues – lavenders, blues, greens, ochers and rusts. It’s these subtle variations on white that create depth and volume and vitality.
Chainsaws came back for a few days to finish off the oak so I wasn’t able to complete the painting but at least I have the owl standing on a mushroom now instead of a pair of oversized gulab jamuns!
Tulip Tea I (WIP)
I’ve begun a new bird & teacup piece. This time a Purple Finch (the only red bird I’ve shot) with a Coalport teacup paired with some vintage redwork embroidery, calico and red and white striped tulips. I start, as always with a loose, painting directly on the prepared board.
I really should have worked the background first but I decided to block in my reds instead.
Eager to see some tulip action I painted these in loosely as well, letting the pigment pull through the brush strokes.
I was eager to see the finch too .
I worked on the teacup next, as it supports both the flowers and bird, I wanted to make sure they felt well integrated.
Dobbing in the foreground to feel where the shadows would fall.
Filling in the vintage linen embroidery backdrop I experimented with a crosshatched look.
Dropping the crosshatching, I tried more definition and a brighter backdrop.
Wanting a deeper shadow I try blocking in dome darks but the grays are all still too wet.
I end up wiping it off down to the initial sketch with a rag dampened with mineral spirits.
I begin to apply the darks in a more controlled way – a muddy mess is a nightmare!
More to come….
Finished! I’ve messed around with little details until the painting told me I was done.
Meeting of the Models
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 !
Widow Among the Butterflies and Roses
I just want to preface this post by letting you know that my gorgeous model has been safely released into the woods far away and no one was in danger of being bitten or hurt during this process.
Having said that, I can now go on about how thrilling and captivating it was to shoot this elegant, deadly spider with my delicate antique china and petals from my favorite rose. The scent was intoxicating, the beauty engulfing and there’s nothing quite like the creepy crawl of a spider to keep you on your toes!
I love the wild and dangerous darkness of the spider along with all of her creative, powerful and cunning associations contrasted with the domestic refinement of delicate petals and porcelain – I could drink it in for days!
Innocent Celibacy?
In a Victorian world where bachelors buttons signify male celibacy and daisies refer to innocence, a bouquet of both would leave you with innocent male celibacy. That’s quite a bundle for a little teacup yet here it is with this “Elizabethan” teacup from England – 1940s or 50s I’m guessing:
Bachelor’s Buttons Blues
My Bachelor’s Buttons have just come into bloom – and I’m too impatient to wait for a whole bouquet – so I snipped the ones that were available and popped them into this vintage Japanese teacup, pulling a dress from my closet to use as a backdrop.
Bachelor’s buttons are also known as cornflowers but the Victorian meanings for each are very different. Bachelor’s Buttons indicate single blessedness and celibacy while the cornflower suggests refinement and delicacy. I wonder which symbolism to explore?
I do know that I’d like to pair this teacup with the Scrub Jay which is that same lovely shade of blue- nothing refined or delicate about this bird though they are tough raucus and smart!
Here are a few shots of the jay I took near my house.
Check out that sashay on this bird as it stakes out it’s feeding grounds!
And that rakish profile!
Brewing Mushroom Tea
Brewing up some mushroom magic in the studio!
It started with that gorgeous barn owl, “Owlivia” from the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center. I knew I wanted to include her in my birds & teacups series so I took lots of pictures when I had the chance. Then I had to scout out a perfect teacup. I thought should be a in a woodland theme, maybe ferns or branches but when I saw the mushroom teacup by Aynsley of England (circa 1939 -) I knew I had found the perfect whimsical compliment to the owl. At first I arranged pink oyster mushrooms in the cup and while I love the color, I wanted to see what a stronger form would look like. In the end, I prefer the king oyster mushrooms which will help to make a more interesting composition.
Mushrooms turn out to be pretty fragile to work with ….I ‘d better eat them up quickly!