I picked up a snail shell from the garden and was fascinated by its curving lines. I had been advised by my tutor to keep my work simple and so I investigated drawings using the snail shell and started to play with the idea of curving and straight lines in natural objects.
photo of the snail shell on sticks
And in the colour contrasts :
orange/brown against blue
red against green – Celery on a tissue box
and finally decided to paint the stick of celery, green against red and yellow lines–there was a lot of removing of paint and the need to wash the image with turps,and the use of white to mute the colours, as the reds and greens became too strong. This manipulation lead to an interesting ageing effect!
There was also the problem of maintaining a steady hand whilst painting curved lines!
Crazy celery
Not an image I like at all, the contrasts are still too strong and the painting not sufficiently “controlled”. Plus it was commented that this was very “sixties” so I am perhaps stuck in a bygone era?
I seem to have an obsession with contrasts, found in this exercise and in the flower still life,i.e. colour and form contrasts (although not yet ventured into texture contrasts). I think that colour contrasts are best muted, particularly when so strong as red against green.
I had problems with working on curving lines in an equal and controlled fashion.
I like the snail orange/brown on blue earlier watercolour, much better than the final celery red on green. The snail seems to glow, is crisp and clear and not overpainted and the lines are less technically difficult because they are on a smaller scale and less regular.
playing with creativity 