Still Life – Ken Crocker Artist

Flowers for Easter

Some tulips for spring and Easter weekend that I originally bought for Lesley's birthday. I drew the sketch with my new Pilot “Young Rex” (dumb name) fountain pen with mixed Waterman black and brown ink, and then watercolor over that. I didn't realize how architectural the vase is until I just looked at the picture… Continue reading Flowers for Easter

Still Life 3

I started another session of still life painting with Michael Van Zeyl two weeks ago. This time it’s 5 weeks, but there’ll be another 5 week session to finish the summer schedule. Michael suggested we try limiting the number of colors in the picture, so I’ve tried to come up with a set up that’s… Continue reading Still Life 3

Color Studies

Here, as promised but late, are two color studies along with photos of their set-ups from a book by Arthur Stern, “How to See Color and Paint It.” These are great exercises in seeing actual color spots instead of just assuming what color something is. One of the points in the box one is that… Continue reading Color Studies

Still Life Done!

Here’s the finished painting! I really had a lot of fun painting this picture and I’m proud of the result. Now two weeks off and then another 5-week session. Michael wants the class to do a picture with a color scheme, so I’m working on finding objects. Right now it’s going to be rose and… Continue reading Still Life Done!

New Still Life, Part III

Yesterday, I painted the orange, brass bowl, added green to the apple shadow and massed in the grapes in very dark blue. The big yellow section behind the bowl will have to get some work soon, although I’m not sure how to do a complicated drape pattern. I also got a new camera, so hopefully… Continue reading New Still Life, Part III

New Still Life, Part II

I had a great class last night. As often happens, last week was terrible–I painted the background on the left of the picture a color that was too close to the color used in the bottle and therefore too warm, making the background not recede enough. Then I painted it over with a cooler color,… Continue reading New Still Life, Part II

The Next Still Life

Last Tuesday I started a new still life. Having no ideas, and since Michael had offered to provide set-up items, I took him up on his offer. Here’s the result. Just a little more complicated than I would have had the courage for, but I’m glad he has that much confidence in me. I had… Continue reading The Next Still Life

The Still Life Is Done

Here’s the completed painting. It’s 11×14 inches, oil on double-primed Belgian linen canvas. It looks great in its narrow gold frame on my dining room wall. Finishing the picture ended my 10-week still life class at the Palette and Chisel. But tomorrow I’ll start another 8-week session of the same class. Classes at the P&C… Continue reading The Still Life Is Done

More on the Still Life

This week’s progress on the still life included (besides getting more light on the painting so I could take a better photo) throwing a shadow across the right side of the background so the background wouldn’t be so uniform, plus more work on the peach–although it still looks a lot like an orange to me.… Continue reading More on the Still Life

An Apple and a Lemon

More still life practice, this time working out a basic composition of several objects. It’s fun to make these little set-ups and it only takes a couple hours to paint them.