Red Grapes with Glass Bowl and Carved Wood Table
Red Grapes with Glass Bowl and Carved Wood Table
5in. x 7in. (12.7cm x 17.8cm ) acrylic on gessoed Masonite®
SOLD
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I’m back in the studio after spring break and a short vacation. We saw several exhibitions including the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Detroit Art Institute and an exhibition of Anthony Ryder’s work at Hillsdale College. We also had some great meals with friends in the Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills area of Michigan.
After seeing the Anthony Ryder paintings and drawings, I was inspired to revisit classical realist still life again. While my work has evolved over the years all the way from abstract expressionism in graduate school to a formal realist style, I’ve also been influenced by Impressionism and Paul Cezanne.
This painting of grapes is one of the small paintings resulting from this study of Classical Realism. Surprisingly, I ended up using a very limited palette of colors. The colors I used were Naphthol Crimson, Yellow Ochre, Cerulean Blue Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Mars Black, and Titanium White.
The surface I paint on is very carefully prepared. For the small paintings, 1/8 inch Masonite® board is prepared with usually five coats of gesso with each coat sanded to a smooth surface before the next coat is applied. Sometimes I use a colored ground over the gesso. Colored grounds are usually a deep Bolos Red or a deep Blue Green depending on the ambient light in the painting I’m going to do. The colored ground concept goes all the way back to painters in Venice during Renaissance and Baroque periods of history. This Grapes painting, however, was painted directly on the white gesso surface.
