a painting a day a story a day: Still Life

a painting a day a story a day: Still Life: Motion in Still Life It's been not quite so cold this winter in Tehran, yet it's surely cold enough to discourage landscape artists from...

Still Life

 Motion in Still Life


It's been not quite so cold this winter in Tehran, yet it's surely cold enough to discourage landscape artists from venturing out. So I thought I'd better do a few still life pieces as a color mixing warm-up that would hopefully lead to some large-scale figurative work. But I guess I'm sort of hooked. Just cant stop doing it! I've been experimenting with fruits and vases, and I think my next set-ups will probably include more unorthodox items such as dolls, shears, vegetables, etc.


Technically the greatest challenge, so far, has been the lighting: My condo is south-lit which means I have to blind the windows to block direct sunlight. Since the blinds are not thick enough, I usually stick aluminum papers on the panes to get something close to a north-lit studio. Next I cut a hole in the aluminum to let in a dramatic shaft of light over the set-up. The only catch is that there might not be sufficient light over your working area. But that's the price you pay for loving to paint with purely natural light. It does nit mean, though, that an artificial light source does not give in well to still life set-ups. Qiang Huang' paintings are mostly done with artificial lights, and the result is amazing.

Bringing out life and vitality in a still life is the hardest part, and one has to be specifically careful with that aspect, or the painting is very likely to turn out boring and lifeless. Livelihood can be achieved through dynamic brushwork, juxtaposing transparent and opaque colors, and keeping color mixing to a minimum; Just look at Schmid's colors in his still lifes. But I guess the most important element in creating a vibrant still life is the composition. Unlike landscape painting where the artist can only compose by taking up a particular perspective and there is almost no control on the position of say trees and plains, in still life, however, the artist can make composition-savvy decisions as to where each item will sit and why. The key here is to let the viewer's eyes move around from one item to the other all in a meaningful and previously planned way. There is no better place to learn that lesson than Daniel Keys' website. His compositions are so perfect that you never imagine they were actually set up.

The Herdswoman

This woman had a copper complexion and coarse manly hands, she was very funny too. She reminded me of my granny who died when I was 15. I still remember all her stories which were usually about the same character who'd go from a naive little boy to a wealthy merchant. Thinking back I still rejoice at how this character would rise to tremendous wealth and status all thanks to his honesty and simplicity. I wonder if those values make any sense today!

In an early episode this boy walks into a store and ,after handing in his money, asks for a loaf of bread. The store keeper takes his money and instead of bread gives him a lesson," Upon entering a place, first greet" The boy walks home empty-handed, but many years later this lesson saves his life. As a fledgling trader he travels with a caravan, In a sweltering day they get stranded on a desert which has got only one water well inhabited by a man-eating ghoul. Climbing down the well the boy greets first, and then asks for water. The ghoul points to the heap of skulls in the corner, and says "...of all these people you are the first to greet me! your reward is your life, water, and hairs you can burn whenever you need me."

In a world of 3-D TV and X-Box entertainment I wonder if kids today are capable of appreciating stories. I guess I would have never become an artist, had it not been for all those imaginative tales I got to hear from my grandmother. God bless her! I dedicate this painting to her soul.