"Afternoon Tea", new oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Afternoon Tea", 12x12" oil on panel
$575 beautifully framed

I painted this from a still life I set up. The teapot gave me great grief, but I am happy with it now. Sometime that's just how it goes. There is a bit of glare in the darks in this photo, sorry.

I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Easter -He is RISEN!!

Enjoy!
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New Plein Air Oil painting and Carol Marine Exercises

 "Spring Runoff -Fish Creek", plein air oil painting, 7 x 12"
Click here to bid -starting bid at $200 unframed

This painting was done earlier this summer -very late snow pack melt here in Alberta, so the rivers and creeks have been high for a long time. Normally you wouldn't be able to take a canoe down this creek, but you sure could have this day.

I thought I would share some exercises we did at the Carol Marine workshop. We were taught to group our values so that we had a dominant value, a secondary value and a smidge value. We had to plan the value composition before beginning to paint and then execute the plan. We were encouraged to try a different plan with each study. It was almost impossible to do a dark dominant painting without making things up, so I didn't do that one. We began with 30 minutes to do the first one, then 15 and lastly 5. Luckily we were allowed to simplify the composition as we shortened the time!

30 minutes; dominant=mid value , secondary=dark value , smidge =light value

15 minutes; dominant=light value , secondary=mid value , smidge =dark value

5 minutes -that was FAST!; dominant=light value , secondary=mid value , smidge =dark value

 I think I will practice some transparent glazing with these as I like the compositions, and will post again later.

Enjoy!
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New oil painting from Carol Marine workshop

"Cracked Up", 6 x 6" oil painting on 3/4" masonite
SOLD

This is my last painting from the Carol Marine workshop. Carol had done a demo of a cracked egg in the morning, so thought I would take the opportunity to try my hand at it. I had the hardest time trying to show that you were looking into the shell on the left, rather than the outside of it, but I think I got it in the end. All a question of values and hard vs soft edges. A lot of learning in this painting. The shells were way harder than the yolk.

I have just joined Daily Paintworks and they will be holding auctions for paintings for me. I will try to list the starting price of the auctions here on my blog. This is a very good way to pick up some very cool unframed artworks at extremely reasonable prices. Payment is made through PayPal, so it is all very secure.

Enjoy!

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New Oil Painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Lime Sorbet", 6 x 6" oil on board

Click HERE to bid

This is another painting done at Carol Marine's workshop. I found this wonderful ice cream bowl at Winners and just had to have it for the workshop. It was perhaps the hardest thing I have ever had to draw from life, next to the figure. This was done early in the workshop before I 'got' the edges thing, but it was great fun, once I got the drawing in (had to rub it out maybe 5 times). When I was done I gave the bowl to Carol for her collection -so you might even see it appear in one of her paintings!

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.
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New Studio Oil Painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Still Life With Limes", 20 x 16", oil on canvas
$1195 framed, free shipping and handling

This is another studio set-up that I painted with my good friend Ingrid Christensen. You can see her painting here. As you can see, Ingrid is a much looser still life painter than I am, and that makes it really fun to work together. She tends to work large in the studio, while my practice is to work small outside, so we allow ourselves to be challenged by working together. We are going to do a figure session with a model on Thursday, so stay tuned for the results of that.

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.

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"Reflections With Oranges", oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Reflections with Oranges", oil painting from life, 16 x 20"

This painting presented an interesting challenge for me. I had the items on the floor and I was looking down on it -which made for an interesting composition that was kind of tricky to get the perspective correct on. I wasn't sure about the background colour, so I decided to wipe it off, and behold, what remained was exactly what I was looking for. Who knew?

By the way, Poppy Riot has also now sold, so I think I will continue the clearance sale into February. It is nice to get some wall space back, but I really miss my babies.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"Should We Follow?", oil painting from life

"Should We Follow?", 6x8", oil on board
SOLD  
 
I set these pears up on my kitchen table with the sun coming in through the big windows, figuring that I only had 1 hour to get it before the shadows changed too much. I am finding it really difficult to take good photos of wet oils inside my studio, however you get the gist of things.
This was really fun to do, so I went out and bought tulips and daffodils to paint over the weekend while my DH is away on his ski trip.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"Light Loves Colour", studio oil painting

"Light Loves Colour", 6x6" oil on board
SOLD

I had some paint left on my palette after hitting "Summit Lake" one more time (it's never over until it's over!) so thought I would try a still life from some photo references I had. Each of these elements are from different photos, so I kind of made it up -would have really liked to have seen the actual bottom of that brown bottle! It was fun to imagine what the reflected light would have looked like if they had been together. I haven't done any still life since Carol's workshop, but think I will try to set up some still life staging gizmo in the studio, at least until the weather cooperates for plein air.
I am having a battle with myself over originality -it seems like everyone and his brother are painting small still lives, so I really don't feel the need to add to the pile. However, it does sharpen your observation and alla prima (= in one sitting) oil painting, so it is useful. I just have to find MY way of doing it that will set it apart from all the others...

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"Hanging On", oil painting from life

"Hanging On", oil painting from life, 6 x 6"
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Day four of Carol Marine's workshop and I was beginning to get what she was trying to teach us -I think! Several of the students took photos of my pear, so I guess that was a good sign. It was great fun to try to capture all the colour and value shifts I saw, in the fewest number of brushstrokes.
Workshop Lesson #5: I need to decide what in a scene is important to me, and me alone. When I am successful at capturing that, my personal style will appear. We each should struggle to find our own way with practice and honest critique, working towards 'loving it' ourselves.
Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"An Apple A Day", oil painting from life

"An Apple A Day", oil painting from life, 6 x 6"
SOLD  
 
This is my second painting from the workshop. We watched a demo each morning, then Carol gave us an exercise, and then we all painted our still lives after lunch, while Carol ran around giving help to us ALL! I think I was beginning to get the idea of how to handle the edges -it was fun being so loose.
Lesson #2: Paint can't do everything! There are just some lighting effects that paint cannot express, and some colours we cannot mix as cleanly as we would like to. As artists we need to learn what those limits are, and then ask ourselves "What can I push to fill the gaps?"

"And Baby Makes Three", oil painting from life

"And Baby Makes Three", oil painting from life, 6 x 8"
Well I am back from 2 weeks holiday at our cottage -a bit cool and rainy at times, but a good rest and I didn't paint at all. Guess I needed a rest!
The above is the first completed painting that I did at the Carol Marine workshop I attended near Sylvan Lake. I did this after Monday's class while sitting at my campsite -photo at the top. The workshop was FANTASTIC and I learnt a ton -not only the things that Carol was teaching directly, but also things I realized on my own as I was doing my own work and reflecting upon it at the end of each day(sometimes these were reminders of things I already knew, but forgot to think about). I thought I would share these things with you, one each day, just to make sure you keep coming back! Before I do that though, I want to plug Carol's workshops. She is a very giving and open instructor, and she paints a mean still life. I will try to study with Carol again next year -you can only learn what you are ready for, building upon those things you already get -so I should be ready for the next lessons after I incorporate the ones I learnt this time. This is definitely one workshop teacher that you want to study with -her blog is great but it is so much better to actually watch her work and be able to ask her questions during the demo (she handled this really well, it is a very difficult thing to talk while you work, especially when you have a bunch of people watching!)
Lesson #1: I think the overriding lesson that I learnt at the workshop was to take pride in who I am as a painter and as a lifelong learner. I will never be able to paint like Carol, but I can paint like me! This might sound obvious, but if you are a painter, I know you can relate. I CAN learn techniques that will help me make my work better, so trying to work the way Carol does for this workshop helped me learn those techniques. Its up to me to put them into my own work after the workshop is over.
Enjoy!

New Watercolour Demo

"Tea Time i", watercolour, 11.5 x 8"
SOLD  
 
This is my demonstration painting for my Tuesday nights' watercolour class, as we finish our unit on still life. From our shaded compositional sketch (made from life), we used strong, full strength colour, making sure that the value of colour applied was the final value we wanted. The actual colour of the objects were not taken in to account -this was actually a white pot and cup. No glazing here! The pure colour, wet juicy paint and single application of colour creates the luminosity. Makes you want to splash in some watercolour, doesn't it?
Enjoy!