Greetings Steemians and Artists,
Painting a still life such as this is feels like coming home. Back to basics. I've said it before, but I will never tire of painting still life. Within simple objects there is always new territory to explore and new heights to achieve.
The setup:
It always comes back to oranges, doesn't it? My objective for this composition is to make the center orange the primary focus, with the cup as a close supporting second.
Here is the initial block-in in umber with a brush:
Straight into knife work. I started on the focal orange first:
Next stage:
For a painting like this, I keep the studio very dark to minimize unnecessary reflections in my objects. And I wear black (which may seem silly, but it makes a difference):
Next stage:
Next stage:
Refining:
And the finished painting, "Provenance" (14x11 oil on panel):
High res image link can be found here.
Thanks for reading! -David