Cezanne made it OK

Years ago I bought all fresh fruit and veggies for my still

life paintings, and for my classes. But then I read

that Cezanne used artificial fruit in his work and that

was over a hundred years ago, so I decided to start using

the fake stuff. Over the years, I have found some pretty

remarkable fakes, like this onion.

You couldn't tell, right? You'd try to cut it up for soup,

right? Well even having it right in front of you, you would

be fooled.

If you keep your eyes open you can find some great fakes.

Florist supply places have really good ones.

But I told you that in an earlier post!

Texture close up

It is notoriously difficult to photograph textured surfaces in paintings.

Take Van Gogh's work for example. You see his paintings in art books for years and then you see it on the wall in a museum and are astounded at the thick textured surfaces he

created.

Here I have tried to show the texture up close of the log from my previous post.

I did the texturing twice, letting the first layer dry.

In this close up, you will see that I put the second layer on with out using any paint in it, just applied the Aquapasto with a palette knife.

A way to get texture

This is not intended to be a painting! I did it as a sample of how you can achieve texture with a product called Aquapasto which is a thick version of Liquin. This product used to be called Oleopasto, but maybe Winsor and Newton changed it because it sounds like a food item!

I have put the Aquapasto on my palette and mixed paint into it. It is only on the right side of the log. When you see it up close, the texture adds a lot to the effect of rough bark.

Like Liquin, it dries quickly....overnight.

Here I have painted the first layer of texture with a dark brown.

On an upcoming post you will see that I brush lighter color over the ridges of the paint and then the dark shows behind.

If you click on the photo you can see it enlarged.

This painting example is 11 x 14 and is done with oil paint.