Ahhh. Late night painting. How did I get here again exactly? let me tell you: I didn’t paint on the multiple occasions I thought about it during the day and kept thinking: “I have time!” While I did in fact have time, I still ended up working much later than I prefer.
I started around 10:30pm and the time crunch to finish before I was running on tired fumes led me to a smaller canvas, 4”x4”, and a simplified subject. I planned to work quickly and was thankful to have a palette ready to go from the night before that was PERFECT for these dried yucca seed pods.
Unrelated to the timeframe, also sought inspiration before starting this painting. A Google search for daily oil painting led me to a listicle blog article from learntopaintpodcast.com where I encountered another post about an artist, Sarah Sedwick.
Her work is AMAZING!! Check it out at the button below
I chose dramatic lighting to match her style with nice long shadows and bright highlights. The creamy, warm palettes she chooses suits my taste and I sunk my metaphoric brush teeth in.
This little 4”x4” still life was created with meticulous attention to detail and with a much smaller, looser brush than I usually gravitate towards. I enjoyed the control it gave me over cutting into the paint that was already on the canvas and in creating clean edges. I would do it again.
Today I was reminded to take care in lighting my subject, to choose a looser, smaller brush for details that must be experienced, and to continue to look at other artists’ work for inspiration. I’m grateful for this painting.