Still Life - The Martyrdom of St. Dunkin'

The Martyrdom of St. Dunkin'
16" x 8" - oil on canvas
SOLD!

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This was a tough painting to do. Not the actual painting part, but staring at that doughnut! Who would have thought that one little cinnamon doughnut would make my whole studio smell like a bakery??? I kept wanting to rip it off the string and gobble it up!!! The set up in my shadowbox was looking quite boring until I added the napkin. Once I'd hit upon the title, picking the color of the napkin was a slam dunk. Ooooh. Bad pun, sorry.

A gallery owner told me about a collector looking for artwork with coffee related themes. I suppose I could have painted a quick cuppa coffee, but you know me. "If it's easy, anybody could do it." So I had to think for a while to come up with something really unique. There's even some symbolism included here, like the red for the martyr and the 13 coils of "rope" in the hangman's noose.

So, what do you think?
Did I succeed in creating something unusual?

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In Vino Vanitas

It's finished. Twelve days. I've lost track of the hours. For those who'd like to see the progression pics, just scroll down. At 24x36 this is probably the largest painting I've ever done. Working this large sure helps in getting all the details just right, but I've spent so much time on it I'm glad to be able to move on to something else now.

Oil on stretched canvas - 24 x 36"
Click the button to buy - US$850 + $35 s&h

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Vanitas in Progress - Days 11

Finished off all the dead grasses, reflected the skull into the silver pitcher, then the lettering on the book spine and did the moldy bread on the plate. Funny thing about that bread; it would not mold!!! It got dry and hard, but it wouldn't mold. I had to eventually paint the mold on the bread in my setup!

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Vanitas In Progress - Days 9 & 10

Catching up on my postings a bit today.

Day 9
A stack of books, the broken pieces of wine glass and the pocket watch. I'll still have the gold leaf lettering to do on the spine of the bottom book before that'll be finished. Parts of each letter are lit and the other parts are in shadow. It'll be tricky, but I have Confidence on my side. (LOL) :)

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Began thinking about possible titles as I was painting on this day. My thoughts got so very philosophical thinking about the symbolism in vanitas paintings and how they are meant to point to the futility of life. Kinda depressing, huh? Hope I can think of a title that's at least a little uplifting.

Day 10
I had fun doing the pewter plate, but oh boy did the fancy embossed design on the pitcher give me trouble! It seemed to come down to black reflections, shiny highlights and one or two other values found somewhere between those two.

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You can't really see it in the painting from this point of view, but when I look at my setup from above, the side of the skull casts a shadow across part of the pocketwatch. So for a title...?
"Death O'ershadows E'en Time"?
What do you think? Guess I was in a sort of "shakespearean" mood that day [LOL] so, ... maybe not a good choice.

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Vanitas in Progress - Days 7 & 8

Day 7
Creating the lace pattern wasn't difficult. In fact it was pretty mindless. It gave me all day to think about other things. Some of the things were about my art and what will be upcoming. The other things were probably things I shouldn't have been thinking about. They were more stressful than creating the lace.

Day 8 was a short day. Well actually it was the same length as they all are, but I had other things that called me away, so I didn't get much done. The base of the broken wine glass and a start on the stack of books. As I was creating the set up for this still life, finding the bottom book was a happy accident. I looked on a bookshelf for a book that would be just the right thickness to elevate the skull to the point where I could get it reflected in the pitcher twice. When I took the multi-colored garish looking dust jacket off of it I was pleasantly surprised to find it was black! "Great!" I thought. "That'll fit right in." And then I noticed the title! "The Immortals". "How ironically perfect!" I thought. Sometimes we just get lucky. Other times, lucky gets us. ;)

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V-I-P (Vanitas in Progress) Day 6

It's progressing nicely, but slowly. I've taken WIP pics every day, but I didn't want to bore you all with them. (I know. "Don't tell me about the labor pains, just give me a healthy baby.") but this is showing some significant progress so I thought it worthwhile to post.

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Still Life in a Bunkhouse

18" x24" Oil on Masonite

In the 1800's, a cowboy's bunk was his private corner of the world.

The fellow who slept here was the prosperous owner of a rifle, a shotgun,and a brand new hat.

This was a "do over" of a painting I'd done about a year before this one. The original was done from a black and white photo. Here I've changed the lighting a great deal from the original, and was surprised how much it actually improved the composition, even though placement of the contents was changed very little.  Go figure.

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The Fiddler's Boots

The Fiddler's Boots

oil on canvas - 24" x 30"

It's the morning after the square dance and as the sun slips in through the bunkhouse window, we can see that the fiddler must have gotten a bit tipsy on his way home and just pulled off his boots, piled everything on the floor and poured himself into his bunk.

Click the button to purchase this painting.
$800 plus $19 shipping and handling

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Scotch

12" x 12"

Oil on Canvas

This was done from a magazine add for Cutty Sark that I'd ripped out many (I wanna say about 20!) years ago, knowing that someday I'd want to paint it. I had one too many people tell me that "You should paint what you love!" So finally, I did.

Purchase this painting - US$95.00 + $20 s&h - US buyers only please

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Burger by Kirk Witmer

12" x 12"

Oil on masonite

I did this one from a photo in a grocery store magazine.

Some folks have even told me this painting makes them hungry.

I can't imagine why.... :)

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"Done for Tonight"

16" x 20"
Oil on Canvas

"... too tired to continue, the puzzle solver heads off to bed.
In the next instant, this room will be dark..."

$375 + $18 (s&h)

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