Valta's Blog | valta.nl

First apples of the season I love apples. In all shapes and sizes, fresh, baked or cooked. So I thought I also liked painting apples. This year we have already harvested many Cox's Orange Pippins in our small orchard , so there was no shortage of models to pose. But somehow it became this time quite a challenge to paint those few apples. It took much longer to finish the painting than I thought. Perhaps it had to do with the new surface that I have never used before, a Mus panel that is actually intended for fine painting. Furthermore, I found that I could not quite match the colours of the apples. And I will be silent about the struggle with the foliage. So there's still a lot to learn for me. But in the end, I am suddenly satisfied with the result. So, it became the "First of the season", acrylic, panel 25 x 30 cm. The final version can be seen in my  gallery .

Time to learn I need to learn to paint the sea. And, I have got some very small frames that are not suitable for stretched canvas. So it's time for exercising and trying out new materials. Using acrylic gesso I glued thick paper on cardboard and then covered it with a few layers of the same gesso. I took my usual limited palette of cadmium red, ultramarine, cadmium yellow, burnt umber and titanium white. And I tried to paint small quick studies of the North Sea shores. One, using a photograph of our Chester I took on the beach. The other one, trying to make a sort of master copy after a painting by Dennis Roberts whose works I admire. Here are the results. "Chester on the Beach", acrylic, paper app. 10 x 21 cm. And "Same Sea, Opposite Shores. After Dennis Roberts.", acrylic, paper app. 12 x 22 cm. the latest studies