Bathers and Flowers

14x18, oil/canvas

Plein air painting is such good training for painting from life. It's always a challenge to capture what's right in from of your very eyes. Here I set up a postcard size version of Cezanne's painting Bathers, an oriental vase filled with tulips, stock and ferns and a faux classical bust. I used a salmon/peachy color sheet for the background drapery and covered the table top with blue/purple tissue paper. The I shone a full spectrum light on it from the left, and also had some flourescent lights from above. Two steps were necessary to complete this painting. The first night I drew out everything in vine charcoal so all the proportions were correct, then dusted most of the charcoal away leaving just a "ghost image". Next I did a monochromatic underpainting with a beautiful trtansparent color called Golden Lake. The next day I worked this alla prima finishing it in one day, about 8 hours.