Andrea Doughtie, Rural Painter

Here’s another kitchen painting.  I thought dried figs would be good since they last forever and don’t wilt.  I liked the look of them in the plastic wrapping.  The background is a laminated (and treasured) cutting board that our son made for us when he took shop in middle school.

Dried Figs    oil on claybord 5 x 7″ unframed  $100

Cadenza    oil on birch panel   36″ x 48″    $2000  unframed,  ready to hang

All winter after Ed broke his leg I escaped to the studio when I wasn’t needed and worked obsessively on just one painting.  It’s larger than most and I’ve stayed with it much longer–scraping down and repainting over and over.  I think I needed some distraction, repeated problems to solve.  It’s another in the cloud series for a show I’ll do in 2012.  It started off with a photo I took late one afternoon but very little of the photo remains.  Compositional structure and the path of light offered the challenge and I invented clouds where they would fit my purpose.    I considered other titles, like “Carried Away” or “Extravaganza” because I was so taken over by the whole process.  I hope some of my frenzy is reflected in the painting.

Three Tomatoes  oil on claybord 5×7″  $100

Here’s the latest in my kitchen series.  I can’t believe how much longer it sometimes takes me to do a tiny still life than to slap down a landscape!  The tomatoes were pretty much finished before I was.  I did a grisaille underpainting for this one because when you paint something red it’s hard to lighten it afterward without making the light parts too pink.  Anyway, I had fun with it.  That’s a box top the butter dish is resting on.

Three Turnips and a Purple Saucer     oil on claybord   5×7″  $100

Still life painters seem to need to paint pears and turnips.  I’ve painted lots of pears but never turnips so I felt it was just time.   Setting up arrangements for the kitchen series is fun because it forces me to think of different possibilities for presenting foodstuff.  Fruits and vegetables sort of take on personalities while I’m observing them so closely.      I was tickled when I realized that the saucer under an African violet would be a nice purple to go with the color of the turnips.      Fortunately they lasted long enough to roast along with parsnips, carrots and onions.

Red Onions   oil on birch panel 8×10″  Unframed but ready to hang   $250

Here’s a little painting I did recently.  I hadn’t planned to paint these onions but they looked so good sitting on the counter I had to set them up in a still life.  I might have worked  longer except I wanted to make a carrot salad!  Now they’ll get hung in the kitchen with all the other paintings of fruits and vegetables.   I was intrigued by the play of light on the rounded forms and the variation of colors, from red purple to a spot of bright red reflected under a piece of skin.

Lillekat  oil on masonite   16×20″    NFS

My granddaughter is crazy about cats.  For some girls her age it’s horses but not for Emma.  Unfortunately she has asthma and can’t have a cat in the house.  But when she visits us I take her to see a neighbor’s cat with whom she seems to have developed a special relationship.    I thought a good Christmas gift would be a  painting of  Lillekat and Emma did seem pleased.   Since we’re in Utica and couldn’t photograph in my studio, the glare is worse than usual.  Anyway, I liked the composition of the cat on the windowsill with the pink flowers in the garden behind echoed in the cat’s nose.

Roses and an Empire   oil on masonite  18×24″  gold frame  $650

I started this still life while the Knockout roses were still blooming and finished it when  apples got ripe.   I finally had to buy a fresh rose and cut up more than one apple before I was done.  I’m pleased with the results though, particularly the drapery.  This one is a bit looser than usual and I think more painterly.  But I did add several glazes to deepen the shadows.  I do a lot of still life paintings in the dark with little lamps on the palette and on the painting as well as on the subject.  It’s tricky because I don’t have very good vision in dim light but I really like the contrast.  I also was pleased to arrange a set up that used the complements red and green since this is the other painting that will go in the Christmas show–not that it’s really a “Christmasy” painting.  The photo cuts off some of the gold frame unfortunately but I didn’t have time to redo it.

Twisted   Oil on masonite  18×24″  $650 framed in black frame

For some reason I haven’t gotten around to putting the finishing touches on this painting.  Anyway,  it was the first one I did when we went to Maine in Sept.  The mosquitos nearly ate me alive but I still enjoyed painting these twisted trees–thought they had real presence.  And I really liked the way the light struck the big pine.

I’ve been getting ready for a group show that Strafford Artworks is opening next weekend and then that will be the last one for a while.  The show of my little paintings in the Strafford post office is going well; I’ve sold several–not big prices but it’s always a thrill when somebody wants to own one of  mine.

I’ve really gotten behind again with posting!  After I moved my big show from the Hanover Library to the Lyme, NH library I decided I’d hang an “Everything but the Kitchen Sink” show in the Strafford Post Office.  I had a couple of boxes full of small paintings I’d never shown–sketches, experiments, etc.  So I pinned up 25 of those and have sold several.  Getting it all organized took some time so I guess that’s my excuse for not blogging lately.

A few weeks ago I went with friends to a beautiful site in Strafford, with a pond and lovely gardens.  I liked the greenhouse as well as the fall foliage in the background.  The early light was beautiful but I was painting in the shade and nearly froze.

Tomato Heaven   oil on masonite  12×16″   $350  unframed