three plums in a bowl …oil painting

just plummy!

More of the season’s bounty – delicious “prune plums”. Ever since I learned that prune is the French for plum, this name has seemed curiously redundant. 🙂 I believe these are the type of plums that are dried into prunes hence the logic of the name in English but they were delicious fresh!

As usual, this was painted alla prima (in one quick session). The background green-ish yellow colour was chosen as complimentary to the plums.

Find joy in the simple things and may the day bring you contentment!

(c) 2017 Hilary Farmer

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pair of pears – 3 (Bartlett) …oil painting

pair of pears -3

Third in the series with Bartlett pears this time – a lovely green with subtle warm tones hinting towards red and yellow. The ribbed blue bowl added a fun counterpoint to the organic pear forms. The background contains the complimentary colours of the subject. This 6″x 6″ oil on gessoed board was painted alla prima and as with all three “pair of pears”, painted entirely with a #10 flat brush.

May the simple things in life bring you joy and contentment!

(c) 2017 Hilary Farmer

posies in glass jar – oil painting

sunlit posies

A joyful little painting – I’m happy with the way the contrast between light and dark really makes the flowers pop!

Here is Tom’s poem. He says he sees this painting as a metaphor for some beautiful, elegant woman basking on a yacht! 🙂

Overflowing blossom
scarf tied ’round round throat
basking in the sunshine
living life afloat!

image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 TJ Radcliffe

 

oil painting – still life 2…

jug, book and wine glass

My second ever oil painting. As with the previous post, this painting was created during a class taken under the instruction of Charles Vinh. This still life set up was more challenging than the first one since there were a greater variety of textures and materials to represent. The transparency of the wine glass was an especially interesting thing to attempt – but not as successful as I had hoped. More confidence with the medium should give a smoother line to the brush strokes in time. The potential within oils to great a softness and luminosity, difficult to achieve with acrylics, is still what is most exciting in my experimentation with this traditional medium.
This week, I start an additional short course in acrylics – one that should teach some of the unique qualities of that medium  rather than trying to force it into the mould of oils. It will be a very busy few weeks while the two courses overlap and work gears up for a looming deadline.

image (cc) 2012 Hilary Farmer

oil painting – a beginning…

first oil painting – blue jug and pumpkin

It has been much too long since my last post. My old HP tablet pc stopped working so I haven’t been able to create new computer drawings. While I look for a new tablet pc or hybrid slate or whatever they’re called now, I will share some other art.
Since I have been wanting to try working in oils for a while now, I decided to start with a basic course this fall. The subject matter for our first still life was quite simple but I can see the potential for that luminous quality that oil paintings can have even in this first attempt. I am also enjoying the quality that oils have of staying workable on the canvas much longer than acrylics.
A new creative journey begins!

Note: The signature was added digitally for upload purposes since this is just course work.

(cc) Hilary Farmer 2012