Still-Life Paintings
One of the best ways to acclimate oneself to the potential of oil painting is to paint a series of still-life paintings. An assortment of basic shapes and objects gathered from your surroundings can not only be a captivating subject as a basis for a great piece of artwork, but can also allow for a lesson in the fundamentals of painting. Furthermore, it can be a refreshing change from your more creative subjects, bringing you back to the basics of art.
I find that when my artworks are lacking the luster of intrigue, I like to set up a still-life in order to focus more on the play of color, texture, composition, and light/shadow effects. Gathering some objects of dear interest to me, and setting them up in a meaningful composition helps me break free of the creativity doldrums I might be in, and I get a new zest for painting. After a few paintings while I am really pushing the fundamentals of the media, I usually develop new techniques or resurface old ones that can be transferred into future works of other genres.
Composition
Capturing the viewer’s interest in the objects of a still-life painting seems to me the most important aspect of setting up the composition. In order to use the composition to the greatest potential, focusing on the subject and how it is arranged in the picture plane has been my recipe for success. The objects themselves may be incredibly intriguing, with the emphasis on the symbolism of the portrayal. Or, the objects can be plain and ordinary, with the lines and arrangement of the composition being the fascination of the piece, like Coffee Server pictured here. The possibilities are limitless, but I find it important to push the potential of my viewer’s interest to the greatest lengths in order to create an appealing still-life with its own merit as a work of art.
One thing I avoid is any hard cutting horizontal or vertical line that divides the picture plane harshly. Adding diagonal and flowing arrangements of objects in order to guide the viewer’s eye through the composition is more helpful. Sometimes the objects’ relationship with each other can create interest as well. As can be seen in the still-life to the right, Cezanne liked to arrange his objects in a way that they seemed to defy gravity. If anything, I steer clear of a stale and static arrangement of ordinary items with no significance to each other.
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