Inspirations, step 14

Final Touches

These last touches include adding the musical notes, painting the feather, rendering the violin strings and lettering the type on the spine of the blue book.

The painting hangs together well with the theme and disparate objects. The risky part was putting in the paint tubes...the rest of the objects in the painting have somewhat of a romantic connotation, but, to me, squeezed paint tubes do not. I was at a loss as to what I could put in the set-up to represent the "artist." The paint brushes work well and are somewhat camouflaged by resting on the piano music. I think the paint tubes are fun and certainly say "oil painter."

It will be a while before I demonstrate another painting on this blog. This painting "Inspirations" will be shown in my one person show at American Painting Fine Art from April 30 to June 11. See the calendar page on my website for details.

Inspirations, step 13

Finishing touches


First I finished the musical notes on the top piece of sheet music, trying not to be too particular...just enough detail to suggest the measures and notes.
When I finished the music, I painted the paint brushes. They add a nice compositional diagonal to keep the painting moving. They also break up the expanse of the white sheet music.

Inspirations, step 12

The paint tubes
After much deliberating and auditioning the third paint tube in gazillion ways, I finally decided on keeping the profile aspect. To add some interest, I removed the cap and squeezed a little paint out of the tube. To say the least, my husband was quite aghast that I would do that, but I think it's pretty neat.

Each tube is by a different manufacturer...one label is green, one is blue and the open tube is red. And they were really fun to paint.

Inspirations, step 11

Painting the violin
The rich reds of the violin wood are a pleasure to paint. There is a depth to the color that I can readily achieve with some glazing. I painted the F-hole with one-stroked while I held my breath. I also worked on the bridge and the tailpiece. All in all, the violin is looking pretty good.

Inspirations, step 10

Painting the inkwell, the books, the ribbon and violin

The inkwell has remained a challenge. I inherited my grandmother's brass double inkwell stand, but it is way too big to put in this painting. But it inspired me to incorporate the filigree design on the shape. Rather than make it brass, I made it look like silver with a gold neck. Actually I think it looks OK. I'm really not in the business of designing inkwells, but I do what I have to do.

Continuing on with the details on the books, I suggested the lettering and decoration on the spines. I added the ribbon bookmark which breaks up the awkward rectangular shape of the pages. It also serves as a directional shape, pointing the eye back to the inkwell from the paint tubes.

I am still undecided about what form that third paint tube will take. Painting the the scroll and pegs on the neck of the violin was really fun.