I have more to do on this one. Working alla prima I could see it becoming a mess so decided to stop at this point. Best wishes for the new year to anyone who happens along.

Onion # 17, Garlic, Oil on paper, 160 x 125 mm.

Onion # 16, Leek, Books and Bowl, Oil on canvas, 350 x 250 mm

I seem to have taken forever over this. Having a bad cold all week hasn’t helped. I started by trying to arrange a view which would allow me to fit the elongated shape of the leek into the picture frame. After trying all sorts of angles and lighting I realised that the board I’m using as a shelf, (which is weighted down with books chosen at random), gave me a warm arrangement of colours and some deep shadows. The most challenging thing was all the straight lines. I am now trying to work out how to fit some sort of adjustable straight edge to my easel.
Two weeks off work and as soon as this cold clears I will start on the Munsell exercises.

It is strange, the obligation one feels to post once you start a blog and I noticed something else about obligation this week. Two years ago I received a commission to paint a series of historical portraits. You can see them at http://nickstoneart.com.
The advice from friends and family was to use this opportunity to launch a portrait painting career. Having been self-employed most of my working life, I understand the need to be commercial and market myself. If you’ve come across Robert Genn you will be familiar with his excellent and realistic appraisal of the conflict between making art and making money from it. Anyway, I think it was a combination of doubt about my abilities and reluctance to start a new business which made me ignore the commercial imperative. Thus the new job. What has struck me this week is that I don’t have to sell anything. I can just paint. I can take my time to absorb the new information the Munsell student book offers, I can take a day to compose a still life composition and, provided I keep putting pencil or something to paper on a regular basis, I can simply relax and enjoy it all. I may have less time to paint but I feel that the time I do have is more productive precisely because I don’t have to produce. Perhaps this blog is just a way to introduce another imperative.
I’ve been working on a still life with a leek. It is a member of the Alliaceae family so related to onions and garlic. I am posting a value study which I’m still tinkering with. I think I’ve put enough time into it to call it onion # 15

Onion # 15, Leek, White bowl and Books, charcoal on paper, 350 x250 mm

My new job is supporting young people as they follow a motor mechanics course. If you’ve heard the phrase “learning difficulties” but are unsure exactly what it covers, I recommend a quick visit to somewhere like wikipedia. While I’m at work, I find it difficult to think about painting, conversely I realised this week that while I’m painting, the work is still on my mind. Which brings me to this red onion skin.
I’ve had this sitting on a shelf in the studio for two weeks now. I began the painting on Monday and stopped today. Thursday evening I went to a life class so I deliberately ignored the skin. This means that I’ve probably invested ten hours in it, ten hours to produce what is little more than a colour study of an onion skin about 8 x 4½ cms. I underpainted in a grey monotone then glazed alizarin over it. I repainted because I was unhappy with the values. Then I added lights, scraped them back, glazed again, more lights, darks, another glaze….. At the drawing stage I decided against a background because I wanted to focus on the form alone. There is an organic simplicity to it, like a shell or leaf. I can see it anchored by gravity yet about to float away. In my mind I know what it should look like but my hands are unequal to the task. There are nuances of colour here and I long to mix them. I am not trying to make the world draw breath before this onion skin, I am just trying to paint it. I don’t know why this process is so absorbing. I am in love with a piece of onion skin and I want to give it the attention it deserves. Learning to do what you cannot is difficult but this is not the same as a learning difficulty. The students I work with are an inspiration.

Onion # 14, Red Onion Skin, oil on paper, 170 x 120 mm