tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87561034836217100412024-02-19T20:16:29.921-05:00Chris BreierCBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.comBlogger297125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-49484491876844726322020-04-18T09:00:00.000-04:002020-04-18T09:00:04.226-04:00Three Mini Sunflowers
It's almost the first day of Spring, so I thought I would paint sunflowers.
Okay, so I'm getting ahead of myself. Sunflowers aren't available locally until summer and it was snowing outside as I was painting this. It doesn't matter though because the weather changes quickly and these will eventually be available at the farmers market.
If you watch the video, you'll see that I began the CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-54767970712690515122020-04-11T09:00:00.000-04:002020-04-11T09:00:01.107-04:00Pepper Eggplant & TomatoesWhether you call it eggplant or aubergine, it’s tasty when you roast it in the oven!
Of course it’s also good with tomatoes.
Eggplant is a popular still life vegetable. It has a beautiful deep purple skin and it’s very glossy. Most of the color shows up in the highlight reflections. The rest of it is so dark it almost looks black.
The original painting is for sale on Daily Paintworks.
PrintsCBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-91363140957320239932020-04-04T09:00:00.000-04:002020-04-04T09:00:02.967-04:00Bottles With TurquoiseI like experimenting with my own color schemes. So in this painting I started by toning the canvas with turquoise.
I don't actually have turquoise in my set of Golden OPEN acrylics but I was able to mix my own. You can mix a fairly good turquoise by mixing Phthalo Blue with a little bit of yellow and white.
Matching colors to reality can be satisfying but it can also be limiting. Realistic CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-40805220253008548312020-03-28T09:00:00.000-04:002020-03-28T09:00:01.853-04:00Bottles & AppleI normally paint with realistic colors, but for this painting I decided to invent a bold color scheme. The original painting is for sale, click the button below to view the auction.
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If you watch the video you will see that I start by painting the canvas with Quinacridone Magenta which is a vivid and bold pink. I also use a little bit of Cadmium Orange.
I allow some of the CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-53598886719341771442020-03-21T09:00:00.000-04:002020-03-21T09:00:01.050-04:00Granny Smith With Two MacsIn this painting, I thought I would combine a green apple with red apples. I enjoy working with color and combining warm with cool colors.
The original painting is for sale.
Not only are the McIntosh apples a warm color but they're much darker, especially in the shadow areas. It's the same Granny Smith from last weeks painting, but I'm painting it in a much thinner manner.
The white plateCBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-42899443006255925272020-03-14T09:00:00.000-04:002020-03-14T09:00:07.956-04:00Granny Smith With BottleThis Granny Smith apple has been sitting on my cupboard for about a week now.
The original painting is for sale.
These apples are fairly tart but they go well with my oatmeal. I slice them up and add it to the oats and then microwave it on high for a few minutes. Cinnamon and flax meal are a good addition too.
I like to think that the glass bottle in the painting is an empty cinnamon spice CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-29089621973842846062020-03-07T09:00:00.000-05:002020-03-07T09:00:01.193-05:00Acorn SquashWhat I like about this painting is the subdued oranges and greens. The warmth of the light orange interior with the dark green exterior is pleasing color combination.
The original painting is for sale.
The greens are rather dark, almost pure black in the shadow areas. The highlights turn slightly blueish, which gives the impression of the dull waxy appearance that the skin has.
While I was CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-13525980264814415442020-02-29T09:00:00.000-05:002020-02-29T09:00:02.106-05:00GarlicI couldn’t imagine cooking without garlic, it adds flavor to many of the dishes that I enjoy. Pizza, spaghetti, falafel wouldn’t be the same without it.
The original painting is for sale, click to view the auction.
That's why I'm surprised that I never painted it before. I've painted multiple paintings of apples, oranges, and other produce. I guess that's because apples are more popular inCBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-46431401897893168072020-02-22T09:00:00.000-05:002020-04-11T11:24:08.462-04:00Bottle With Wood BlocksWhat I liked about this image is how the glass bottle almost disappears into the background. It’s the highlights and the dark reflections that defines the shape of the bottle.
The original painting is for sale.
That's the challenge of painting glass objects, it's like painting something that's invisible. It's totally transparent so I'm really just painting whatever is behind it.
It's the CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-68633843033883028992020-02-16T12:11:00.001-05:002020-02-16T12:11:47.428-05:00Crystal Ball With Wood BlocksThe subject matter in this painting is a little different than what I've been painting. It includes a crystal ball and a wood pyramid.
The original painting is for sale.
Well, technically, the crystal ball is made from acrylic plastic but it looks just like a real crystal ball.
I'm always looking out for new still life material. I found this plastic ball over a year ago and I bought it CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-91420270572154419452020-02-08T09:30:00.000-05:002020-02-08T09:30:02.762-05:00Potions IIThe original painting is for sale.
This painting is along the same lines as the other painting of bottles from a few weeks ago.
I like the design of glass bottles, new and old. These are new bottles that are designed to look like vintage bottles.
The glass is wavy and I like the distortion that it creates. Those wavy patterns were the most interesting part to paint.
It occurred to me CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-87394587120961007912020-02-01T17:02:00.005-05:002020-02-01T17:02:59.526-05:00Pink RoseThe original painting is available.
This is the third painting that is from the bouquet of flowers that I bought a few weeks ago. When I buy flowers I like to photograph them in a variety of settings so that I can get more than one painting from it.
For example, I took the rose from the bouquet and put it in a different vase.
I like this thin vase and I thought that a single, bright CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-42463694081677076202020-01-25T06:00:00.000-05:002020-01-25T06:00:06.698-05:00White RoseThis white rose was a part of the bouquet that I painted last week.
The original painting is for sale.
That painting featured the pink rose, so I figured this weeks painting could be of the white one.
At first, I couldn't figure out if it was a white rose or a yellow rose. But after looking at photos of white roses online, I realized that they can actually have some color to them.
This isCBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-80781779099422091242020-01-19T12:03:00.000-05:002020-01-19T12:03:05.410-05:00Pink FlowersThe original painting is still available.
These flowers came with the vase and included a couple of roses. I suppose that's why they were more expensive than the flowers that I have been buying.
This painting is similar to "Safari Sunset." The background colors are the same and I photographed them on a table using natural sunlight. You can't beat natural sunlight for bringing out the colors of CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-53600630552985383612020-01-11T09:51:00.001-05:002020-01-19T11:47:11.082-05:00Three MacsThe original painting is still available.
I recently bought a large bag of McIntosh apples at the supermarket. These are the ones that are a little smaller than the premium apples. They may be smaller, but they still taste good.
I like to cut them up and put them in my oatmeal in the morning. I add some cinnamon, walnuts, and sprinkle in some flaxseed meal. Flaxseed meal doesn't add much CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-12662150754411933852020-01-04T17:30:00.000-05:002020-01-04T17:36:26.233-05:00Lemon WaterThe idea for this painting came from the extra lemons I had laying around the kitchen.
This painting is still available.
I use them mostly for making hummus and tahini salad dressing. I make my own hummus because it's an easy recipe and it saves money. I also find that the store bought hummus contains a lot of unnecessary olive oil and salt.
Another benefit of making my own hummus is that I CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-52147219410587400712019-12-29T12:00:00.000-05:002020-01-19T11:41:47.110-05:00PotionsSOLD
I found these bottles on sale at one of those big box craft stores, they were on sale for 50% off.
I suppose I could get glass bottles for free if I was willing to rummage through the neighborhood recycling bins, but that's not my forte : ) Besides, these bottles have a wavy appearance to simulate the look of
antique bottles. They also have corks instead of the modern screw on
caps whichCBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-55133671344016933012019-12-21T08:30:00.000-05:002019-12-21T08:30:12.860-05:00Mini SunflowersThese sunflowers lasted a long time. I don't know if it was the plant food that I added to the water or the sunlight from my kitchen window that helped them to survive, but I got to enjoy them for over a week.
This painting is still available, click to view the auction. This painting is the companion piece to my previous sunflower painting that I completed a few weeks ago.
I rarely CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-68066707856184385512019-12-14T08:00:00.000-05:002019-12-14T18:53:01.402-05:00Safari SunsetI bought these flowers from the supermarket with the idea in mind that I was going to use them in a still life. The following morning, I set up the lighting and took numerous pictures.
This painting is still available, click to view the auction.
When I was trying to select a photo to make a painting from, there were only a few that caught my attention. Basically, I took dozens of photos and CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-6012177247031476152019-12-07T08:00:00.000-05:002020-04-11T11:48:24.333-04:00Orange SlicesI have a love-hate relationship with oranges. Oranges are great when they’re juicy and sweet, but sometimes you get one that’s dry and chewy. What do you do with those?
This painting is still available, click to view the auction.
The way that I deal with subpar oranges is that I slice them with a knife and then bite into them, and suck all of the juice out of them. Then I throw the rest of CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-22969576680685757312019-11-30T08:30:00.000-05:002019-11-30T08:30:02.761-05:00Apple CiderThis is an appropriate subject to work on in November. I often visit Letchworth State Park in the fall to view the leaves. On the way there I look for a farm that sells apples. Buying apples direct from the farmers is not only cheaper but the apples are usually fresher.
Years ago, I found a farmer that also sold apple cider. He kept jugs of it in a cooler with ice and you would just help CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-55314236360525438512019-11-23T09:30:00.000-05:002019-11-23T09:30:01.047-05:00Sunflower QuartetThis painting is still available click to view the auction.
I bought these mini sunflowers at the supermarket, I was surprised that they're available in the middle of November. Apparently they're generally available all year. That's probably one of the reasons why they’re so popular.
Actually, sunflowers are so popular that I sometimes hesitate to paint them. They’re featured on hand bags, CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-25526442083809726582019-11-17T00:00:00.000-05:002019-11-17T00:00:04.975-05:00Tangerine Dream
This painting is still available. Click this link to view the auction.
The glass bowl in this painting is another garage sale find. I have a storage shelf filled with glass bowls, vases, and other interesting objects that I can incorporate into my still life paintings.
I recently watched an episode of American Pickers and they were visiting the studio of a professional photographer. CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-43805586826592118542019-11-15T09:00:00.000-05:002019-11-15T09:00:00.141-05:00Pink Yellow & Blue Flowers
Pink Yellow & Blue Flowers
8"x10"
Acrylic on canvas board
This painting is available, click to view the auction. I bought this vase when I was walking to the local farmers market. My neighborhood coordinated a garage sale for a Saturday morning.
Garage sales are great places to look for still life material. You can find older objects and the prices are usually fair. I stopped at two of CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756103483621710041.post-91061278979456314302019-11-03T09:00:00.000-05:002019-11-03T09:00:03.517-05:00Fresh Off the Vine
This painting is available, click to bid in the auction.
I wish I could say these tomatoes are fresh from the garden vine, but they’re fresh from the greenhouse vine. October isn’t the best time for fresh slicing tomatoes. However, I’ve found that these tomatoes from the supermarket that are still on the vine are decent enough.A nice thing about tomato vines is the aroma they leave on your CBreierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00344903942320966264noreply@blogger.com0