Something a little different

I love the challenge of painting or drawing what I am directly seeing. Usually, for me, that means painting outside.  And if I am painting in the studio it is typically on a larger piece. This is a still life painting I did the other night. It was done in one session like my plain air work and the goals are similar to plain air painting; capturing the light, creating a sense of depth and telling a little story. I don't paint still lifes that often, but except for the being outdoors, I enjoy them just the same.

I really didn't put much thought in the selection of the items beyond liking the variations in value of the objects and the similarity of their color intensity. Meaning I had one dark object: the vase, one medium value object: the book, and one light object: the skull and all were near monochromatic in color. Typically I would put more thought into the relationship of the objects to tell a little story but this time I liked how they looked together and was mostly concerned with capturing a likeness for practice.

Incase you are interested the book is Gone With The Wind, the skull is a raccoon skull and the vase was given to me by a former employee.

Untitled, Oil on Linen, 12"x13.5"