Yellow, and the colours in white

Yellow   almost done

On one of my walks I stayed in a B&B which was a rebuilt farm. It was beautifully done, preserving the farm’s former character. Some of the walls were more than a foot thick – I shot this sunlit china collection in a recessed (ex-) stall window during breakfast. Next is the underpainting and a first tentative sketch. What I wanted to capture was the yellowness of everything, the walls, the teapots, the sunlight streaming in. (The title refers to a song by my current favourite band, Coldplay.)

Early stage

Below is the final, I actually like the lightness of the former stage at the top of this post because it comes closer to what I wanted to do. But I like the juiciness of this last version as well.

Yellow done, oil on canvas board

For the next painting I revisited some photos of still lifes. I wanted to paint the white cloth and capture all the colours in white in different lights. I struggled with various versions of this one. They say that a painting is never finished, it just stops somewhere interesting.

Acrylic underpainting

Sketching in first oil layer

Apple and lemon, oil on canvas board, many versions later