Painting White Now

 You may have read my previous blogs about painting white objects and how helpful that can be when starting out painting, in any medium really.  Painting white (or near white) objects allow you to focus on the value and subtle temperatures changes.

This is an still life oil painting from a few years ago from a workshop with Boulder painter Linda Lowry (check out her amazing interior scenes) where we we're assigned an all white still life.  The swan dish is from a tag sale and I thought it would be fun and challenging to paint the feathers.

Just for fun, I "cheated" a bit and added a pop of color in the focal point. I believe I painted this entirely from neutral mixes of Burnt Sienna and Prussian or possibly Thalo Blue, since I rarely use a tube black like Ivory Black. (I do recall that I found the very dark background challenging from a brushwork standpoint.)

Here's a short video of Craig Nelson painting "white" eggs as well--you'll see he uses quite a bit more color.

Also, if I ever win the lottery I think the first thing I'll do is order every single paint color from the current Daniel Smith Catalog. (As some of you know, I already can't live without my Daniel Smith "quin" colors.) I see now they have some amazing looking new pigments (PrimaTek) based on gem grade minerals that I can't wait to try one day, like Tiger Eye, Lapis, and Turquoise.  Just browsing through this catalog brightens my day!

For more information about my beginner or intermediate oil painting classes, please write to me at the email in the header. And for my current students, be sure to practice this week--"Owl" be seeing you in the studio!