One mug for two apples - Oil painting

I wanted to take advantage of a sunny spell during the week-end to paint a still life from nature. The canvas was not toned, so I started with highly diluted washes.

This painting was done alla prima with a single brush: a long flat hog brush number 4. I did not restrict myself consciously, I just started with this brush and get so absorbed in the painting process that I carried on to the end. I did not feel the need at any time to switch to a smaller brush or a round one.

One mug for two apples - Oil on linen (18 X 24 cm) by Benoit Philippe

The subject is simple and complex at the same time. It is simple as far as the props are concerned: a mug we use for tea and two apples from the fruit basket. It is a complex painting because of the multiple reflexions:

• Reflexion of the apples and the mug on the glossy surface of the windowsill and in the glass pane behind;



• Reflexion the apples on the glazed mug.
  

There is an abstract beauty to the crossing of shadows and reflections on the windowsill.

The backlit objects display dramatic contrasts reinforced by the antagonism of greens and reds, one of the strongest opposition of complimentary colours you can get on the colour wheel.

Although colours are strong, there is still a theme or a motive developed within this painting: the red rim and handle of the mug echo the colours of the apples.

Still life Oil painting

The Art of Mistakes

One of the trends beginner artists have to fight is the will to achieve perfection here and now. They are impatient. The benefit of experience is, beside technique, a certain ability to see what the painting is going to look like when finished. It’s like being a seasoned chess player who can anticipate where the game is going. In reality, the painting will never be exactly what you anticipated it to be, but it saves you from giving-up too soon. It fosters enough confidence to build the painting over time because you know where you want to go; you have the map and you can see from the top of the hill your final destination.

How does that relates to mistakes? To make progress, you need to learn by trial and errors. “Trial” is a better word than “mistake”, because you always learn in the process.

Thomas Edison, who invented the electric light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the microphone did not succeed overnight. He was in fact a firm believer of the virtue of failure as a path to success. Once, he was experimenting to find a better type of battery. One of his assistants came to Edison and asked him if he was downhearted with the lack of progress. Edison answered back: “Downhearted? We’ve made a lot of progress. At least we know 50,000 things that won’t work!”

You have to learn to see failures as a step towards success. Unless you stretch yourself, unless you explore new territories, you won’t make significant progress. The trick is to look at the positive aspect of your failure, as Edison did.

Next time you experiment and you are not happy with the result, have a close look at the effect you achieved and think how you could use it in other circumstances. This way, you will learn faster and develop your own style.

To avoid focussing on failures, you must reduce the cost of such failures: economically, in term of time and emotional investment. One good way to achieve this is to work on small formats. Undertake small studies that will only take you couples of hours and do it on a regular basis. Making it a habit should also reduce the preasure you put on yourself.

Le Chemin de Vertignol - Oil painting by Benoit Philippe

You will also encounter what I call “happy accident”. I was once painting a landscape in the North of France when it started to rain. As I was using oil painting (and had nowhere to get shelter), I just carried on. The rain made the surface of the canvas slipery and the paint formed a rough texture in some areas. I like very much this painting and I would not have rendered better the stormy and grey sky without the helping hand of the elements.

My French Easel in print

I am much excited to report that Frequency Magazine published my first article in their March edition.

The magazine contains a “What’s on” section informing people in Swindon (Wiltshire, England) about concerts, exhibitions and other entertainment happening in the area.

For the first instalment, the article was “learn and you will see” that I published earlier on this blog. For April, I wrote an article on oil painting, with 10 tips for beginners. This series of articles is going to be a monthly column.

A bowl of lemons - Watercolour

By the size of the projected shadows, you will guess that this week's painting was not done from nature in England… Outside, the weather is mostly grey and the sun timid.

This still life was done using one of the photographs I took while in the South of France during last summer. The photograph was shot in the morning, around ten o’clock and the sun was already bright. I liked the multiple reflections: the lemons on the glazed ceramic bowl and the reflected light in the shadows of the lemons.

A bowl of lemons - Watercolour by Benoit Philippe

The strong summer light means stark contrasts, with almost black shadows on the right and lost edges where the light hits the bowl and the lemons on the left. To reinforce the sense of intense light, I only suggested the table, leaving most of the background white.

If you are interested to see how watercolours and oil painting lend themselves to different moods and effects, check out “Café et croissant”, a small oil on panel I executed from a reference photograph taken during the same session.

Art pricing tip from Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci wrote:

“There is a certain breed of painter who, having studied little, must spend their working lives in thrall to the beauty of gold and azure. With consummate stupidity they argue against executing good work for meagre recompense, although they say they would be as able to produce it as another, were they be well paid. But consider, foolish people, do such as these not realise that they should keep aside some good work saying, this is worth a good price, this is medium-priced and this is run-of-the-mill, thus showing they have works in all price ranges.” 

(from Leonardo on Painting: Anthology of Writings by Leonardo Da Vinci with a Selection of Documents Relating to His Career as an Artist (Yale Nota Bene) edited by Martin Kemp)

Source: NASA

It is important, as Leonardo suggests, to “have works in all price ranges” for the following reasons:

• First of all, you want to make sure that a wide section of viewers can buy your art and offering a comprehensive price range helps buddy collectors to start on the path to buying art. You could sell drawing or small studies at reasonable price, or have small oil paintings.


• Collectors who bought a piece of work from you (even the cheapest ones), are more likely to buy more in the future and could buy more expensive works. Many people have trouble breaking the mental barrier of buying art. Once they’ve done it, they realise that it is not that a big deal.
  
• If you have a wide price range based on a combination of the medium you use and the size of the works, you have a good argument to answer the discount question: “Can you give me a discount on this painting?” In this case, you can answer: “Well, what is your budget? I have smaller paintings and I am sure we can find something you will like and is within your budget.”


• Having cheaper paintings in your range comforts the potential buyer of a more expensive work that he is paying the right price. Let me explain. As a buyer, we want to feel comfortable that we are paying a fair price for what we buy. We generally do that by comparing different goods with various features and then we make-up our mind. We may not go for the cheapest good because we value certain characteristics of the more expensive item. What is important is that we had the choice and when we have made a choice freely, it becomes harder to back track. By offering a wide range of prices, you are placing your potential buyer in a position to make a free choice and therefore, to feel comfortable the day after the sale that he did the right thing.

Art marketing Selling art Art prices Leonardo da vinci Price range