Back to the Beginning with Still Lifes

Going back to the beginning is useful in any craft or pursuit.  Recently I have been teaching basic drawing to our younger children and reading a very good book for beginning watercolors.  While revisiting foundational skills and concepts, I find myself thinking about still lifes.  Landscapes and portraits usually stir my heart the most and keep my interest the longest, so I was surprised how much fun I had and how many possibilities bubbled forth when I experimented with these still life arrangements.

 

 I chose things I especially love and this must be where it comes to life for me. I enjoy these things for different reasons; some for the bright colors or beauty of design, some for my love of tea, some for the special people they bring to mind.

 

 

 

 Peace cup, brown tea pot and batik art smock

 

 

 

Here the tea pot goes solo

Is the genie out of the bottle or has the vanilla silk oolong fully steeped?

 

 

 

A country rustic and traditional feel to this one

 

 

This one was funny and interesting to me for its lack of color.

It is a study in neutrals, like the work of Andrew Wyeth, whose favorite color was white.

 

 

This was one of my favorites because the batik colorful swirls add so much

like inspiration and creativity adds to life.

 

 



 

I love the contrast of the simple white cup and the colorful background,

tapping into my graphic designer mode on this one.

 

 

  

A slightly humorous and esoteric one here

  A view finder, an artist's basic composing tool, is on a neutral surface in front of a neutral background,

beige on beige, rectangle on rectangle, blah on blah,

perhaps and unconscious tribute to Kazimir Malevich's White on White.

 

This one is for free and for laughs.

 

 

 

Kazimir Malevich  Suprematist Composition- White on White,

oil on canvas, 1918, Museum of Modern Art