Two Bottles

                                                       Oil, 12x9 

There are quite a lot of things I learned from painting this:

 There can't be light without the dark; 

The translucent light alongside the bottle could be done straight from the tube of the right value and color (which I didn't have, I had a hell of a time making it look even close. I mixed white with light green and cobalt blue but only made it opaque or dull looking); 

Green pepper is not that complicated to paint, it just takes a little patience; 

Background is fun to paint, just don't paint what you see; 

Don't put too many cherries on the table. 

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I'm taking reservation for a four day workshop for Qiang Huang in July, 2013 in Scottsdale, AZ. If you're interested please email me. The space will be filled up fairly quickly, so please act fast. Here's the flyer for more detail:

Yellow Roses In Vase

Oil on Telati Board, 11x14

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There are times when we are stuck in a not-so-good spot to paint a live model, we have to be more inventive and selective to move object(s) around in our mind for better composition. In this painting, I was looking at three objects evenly spaced with no overlapping whatsoever. I elected to paint the vase with roses and a little brown bottle next to it. Bad choice! I forgot about the magic of threesomes (or odd numbers). 

So, I took out the little bottles and in its place I put a rose petal, instead. I think it worked better.