ABOVE Felicity
House, Jug of
Cream, pastel on
paper, 22x25cm
the day a quick, hour-long painting in
pastels, oils, gouache or watercolour.
When choosing a still life subject,
I often use a simple formula of three
particular things.
Firstly, choose a “surface”. It might
be an interesting piece of fabric, a
piece of attractive wrapping paper,
or a familiar tablecloth. Next choose
a container – a favourite cup or mug,
perhaps, or an interesting jug, basket
or patterned bowl. Finally choose
what I call a “natural” object, such as
a fruit or vegetable, a shell or a seed
pod, maybe some feathers or flowers.
In selecting each of the three objects,
I’m always looking for shapes and
patterns that work well together, as
well as colours that either contrast
or harmonise.Set things up by placing the surface
on a table, the container on the
surface, and the natural object in
or around the container. Move the
components around until you notice
a grouping you like enough to paint.
Looking through a viewfinder helps
here – even just looking through a
makeshift rectangle made from your
thumbs and forefingers allows the
eye to finalise a composition. Seeing
through a frame helps you to choose
a more interesting composition which
may be off-centre or involve items
being cropped.
Next use the viewfinder to roughly
plot your chosen composition on the
support. Rest the viewfinder and
paint the composition you plotted.
I like to use soft chalk pastels, oftenwith tonal watercolour washes for an
underpainting on a support that is
generally no more than 20x25cm.
If I use oil paints, I go smaller still.
In time, you can use this formula
to tackle more complex still life with
growing confidence. Our homes are
full of things we’ve liked and bought,
been given or kept as a memory.
With some forward planning our daily
food preparations can be paused to
provide other lovely subjects.
I’m particularly fond of domestic
interiors so lockdown provides time
to give a whole day to work on a more
ambitious picture, like a kitchen view
or a dining table. The challenge of
relating one item to another makes
for an absorbing day’s work.
http://www.felicityhouseartist.co.uk