56 artistMarch 2021 http://www.painters-online.co.ukACRYLICS
TAA little touch of
originality
Marie Antoniou recommends you look past the
obvious when choosing a subject for a still life and,
to avoid the predictable, also think about using bold
colours and a different light source
A
s a subject, still life often
draws sighs or moans as
predictable set-ups of wine
bottles, flowers and bowls of
fruit generally follow. There’s nothing
wrong with any of these elements of
course but they have been depicted
so often that viewers look past them.
Even a little touch of originality would
go a long way to attracting viewers’
attention, such as incorporating a tennis
ball in a bowl of oranges and pears
or a mobile phone next to a glass of
wine. Any drawing and painting should
exercise the imagination but if you’re
attempting a still life, try to avoid the
predictable and plump for the unusual,
with a varied combination of items, or
light it in a different way, or place them
somewhere you wouldn’t necessarily
think of.
Along with unusual themes, the wayMarie Antoniou
teaches drawing and painting, privately
and in adult education classes. She
exhibits widely, including with the Society
of Wildlife Artists and the David Shepherd
Wildlife Artist of the Year, and has won
many awards. For more information, see
http://www.marieantoniou.com and
http://www.pics4painting.comyou paint, the medium you choose or
the compositional structure can be used
to break preconceptions. Some amateur
artists can feel the need to stick to well-
trodden paths and produce predictable
artworks, as can be seen in many local
exhibitions.
When I ran a workshop on ‘Bony
Structures’ I was fortunate in that one
of my students had a collection of
animal skulls that she was happy to
bring along to the workshop and share
with other students. This gave us all
the opportunity to paint from life. As an
artist you also want to take advantage
of opportunities like this as this sort of
thing doesn’t happen often. My student
kindly allowed me to take photos of her
skull collection and gave me permission
to add these to my own portfolio of
reference materials, to which I can
return at any time.p Working from a photo is a great resource
but can smother your creative juices as so
much of the information is dictated to you.
Even if the image is very different from the
norm we are quite happy to follow it exactly.
Try extending the thought process to how
you draw or paint it
t Animal skull, coloured pencils
on A2 paper.
For this sketch I used very
animated marks for this static
subject. There are subtle shots of
colour with loose sketchy marks
against more pressured ones and
lots of broken edges. In art you are
trying to elevate your subject so
that a viewer can appreciate the
form as well as the way the artist
has interpreted it. Try drawing
or painting an unusual subject
using different angles, close up or
in a variety of light to add to the
mystery and to make the viewer
work a little bit harder. This makes
the image a bit more challenging
and adds greater engagement
with the subjectMy thanks to Georgie Roy for sharing her
collection of skulls with me and the other students
and to Luke Tyler, for sending me his photo of the
skull for my pencil sketch