The Buddha Loves Baseball

Here's my latest painting. The photo isn't the best (that's a dark shadow in the lower right corner, from what I don't know) but it'll have to do!




After painting in black and white I decided I wanted to paint white objects in color. I'll try to get better close up photos so you can see how much color actually lives in the objects. I wanted to paint another cast and I wanted to do something for Jeff... and baseball is very zen-like: a lot of non-action. The original plan was to use a neutral background but one teacher encouraged me to do an exercise with a lot of color, and the blue really popped other color in the objects.

I started with a color study, during which I realized that the flowers to the right of Buddha were a bit unnatural looking. I changed them and then moved on to a charcoal sketch of the still life. I transferred the sketch to canvas and stared painting.






Here's the basic set-up in my studio:




I have to say I eventually just decided this painting was done, without being satisfied with it. I learned a lot and am ready to do something new, but there are certainly areas that could be improved upon. I've moved on to another painting and will post it in a while. It's very different from this one--all earth tones and muted colors, pottery and wood. We'll see how it goes. Let me know what you think!