Still Life Paintings

I became a  landscape painter because still life paintings looked so static and boring to me.  All those fruits, flowers, and dead rabbits. 

But every once in a while I make a foray into the genre.  This scene of some hanging lanterns was inspired by the remnants of a bygone era hanging in my friend Joan's shed. 

I kept the colors in a kind of sepia tone.  The grey of tin and glass surrounded by warmer colors of the wooden interior made a striking contrast.  I've said it before:  restricting the colors, keeping a limited palette, allows you to concentrate on values.  And the slight tilt of the lanterns gave the still life some tension. 

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