Eggplant

oil on canvas paper mounted on board 7 3/4" x 7"

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Here's a quick study to prepare for a still life class. If I don't do the exercise myself, I'm not teaching it as well as I could.

Sometimes I spend a month or more on a painting, as perfectionism can sometime grab me by the heels, but it's important to sometimes just paint fast and not take it too seriously. Isn't there a cookbook titled "Fix it and Forget it"? I think sometimes that's good advice.

Pink, Red and Gray

oil on linen mounted on board 10" x 8"

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This painting went through a lot of stages, from loose to tight to loose to tight...trying to find a good balance between the two. 

I like the compositional tension between the strong red in the background competing for attention with the more subtle colors of the shell. Bold, saturated colors usually come forward in a painting, dull colors retreat, so I suppose I was trying to see if I could break one of the rules and have it work.