Tis the season

Red Ornament 6x8 pastel, copyright 2012
SOLD

It's the holiday season, so I decided to try a quick sketch of one of my favorite things, a glass ornament. My brother and his wife bought this one for me in Venice.  My glass collection includes a number of pieces from Venice as I find handmade glass far more appealing than shoes and handbags.  May is the best time to visit, before the tourists swarm the place and the heat and humidity get unbearable.  It's good place to get lost, wandering through the back streets admiring the architecture and the locals - just don't cross a bridge, or you will get really lost!

This particular ornament has gold leafing wrapped around it, but I haven't quite figured out how to paint gold yet.  I have another ornament made from Murano beads that needs to be painted sometime, though with its many colors it won't be a quick sketch.  Another ornament, painted in oil, is currently available at the Preble County Fine Arts Center in Eaton, Ohio.

Painting glass

Amber Glass Ornament 6x6 oil, copyright 2011

click to purchase this painting

One of the things on my "bucket list" is to learn how to blow glass.  It's amazing to see a glowing, gooey glob on the end of a pipe turn into a work of art using only fire and air.  I still remember the first time I watched a demonstration of someone making a large serving plate by blowing a globe, then folding it together and spinning it to shape a disk.  Over the years since I have slowly accumulated a collection of handmade glass items, mostly ornaments.  This particular one is my most recent acquisition, picked up this fall at the Renaissance Festival.

Glass and water are two very challenging subjects to paint.  They are transparent and opaque at the time time and can be a confusing mess of reflection and refraction.  The light and shadows feel right on this one, but I haven't quite figured out how to portray the slightly transparent quality accurately.  Water gives me the same sort of fits - how do you paint both the surface and below the surface at the same time?