Oil Study - Valentine Cupcake

6x6 Oil on Board

This was an oil painting demo. It's a mini Valentine cupcake painted in oils on 6"x6" board.

Blueberry Tart

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Oil on Illustration Board

This was a dessert I bought from a South Philly bakery that was topped with blueberries, stuffed with pastry cream and dusted with powered sugar. The main goal was to quickly represent the temperature of the blueberries and build up the structure enough to show preliminary steps for alla prima painting.

Abandoning my normal use of a little Liquin or Galkyd I used a homemade mixture of Liquin, Turp and Linseed Oil. The washiness of it is not normally how I prefer to lay down initial paint but I thought the use of a thinner medium was a valuable lesson to impress upon the class, especially for those students who prefer a transparent representation.

The Fancy Strawberry Man

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Oil on Masonite

I used this as a demo on alla prima painting desserts. It happened to be after Valentines day so the local bakery had all sorts of fancy looking strawberries. I usually go for the cannolis myself but I couldn't resist the "cuteness" of it.

Shoo-Fly Pie

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This is a little ode to home. Growing up in Lancaster County I stuffed myself with whoopie pies, shoo fly pies and chicken pot pie. Here I cut a piece out (the rest went to my students) set it on a white background with a strong light. It's tough trying to give each brown a character of it's own but I think I managed all right for an hour painting. Next time I think I'm going to have to paint some wilbur buds.....now that's directly from my hometown of Lititz. Mmmmmm.

Whoopie Pies in Thought

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This was a quick little demo I did on Alla Prima painting with my students. I wanted to play with some vibrant colors so I found a bright green envelope in the office and set up the pies. The pies took on a reddish glow which complements nicely on canvas. I didn't spend too much time on this so it's pretty rough.