Saturday, February 5, 2011

"Red Plums"

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"Red Plums"
8 x 10 in
Oil on Canvas Panel
Hi everyone hope your weekend is going well so far, i'm about to go to an opening event for Titian and the Venetian masters at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, here's the link: http://www.artsmia.org/titian/ .  I'm so excited to see these paintings in person, to see Titians up close and Tintoretto and Veronese its gonna be so much fun.  It's also an event which they are throwing a show with venetian style masks and entertainment.  To say that I'm excited to go to this an understatement.
This painting of these two plums I wanted to do in a Chiaroscuro manner, which became more difficult than I thought.  In order to paint a successful dark background in one session with strong chroma colors you have to control your hues and values very carefully.  It's been a while since I've done a painting with so much dark in it, I remember back in Italy all of our paintings where done this way.  It's a great way to emphasize color and your focal point.  I don't have any process photos with this one because the pics weren't to good, sorry about that.  The plums in process looked bleached out in the picture and you couldn't see the painting to well.  This painting in a way pays homage to the venetian masters and brings me back to my roots and fundamentals in painting.  Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed!   

5 comments:

Jeanette Jobson said...

Chiaroscuro really does highlight the fruit here and it is lovely. I've only done a couple of pieces using this technique, I must try some more.

Lucky you being able to go to this exhibition! How exciting to see the pieces in person, such a treat.

Lori Bonanni said...

Really like the dark background as it really makes the colors pop.

Judy P. said...

Wow Jonathan, I would swear this had layers of glazing on it; what great control you always show! This has beautiful jewel-like colors and tones.

Brian David MacNeil said...

Black is better!!!!

SEILER said...

Wow man . . . this is amazing . . .