The aim of this project is to paint a still life in which the main component is red. The brighter the red the better -- a brilliant cadmium red would be ideal. The challenge comes from the fact that red is a very selfish color, drawing in the viewer's eye and easily dominating the whole painting. You need to compose your painting so that while the red object will draw in your attention immediately, the composition does pull your eye out and around the other objects. Alternatively, to select a item that is strong enough to can stand alone as the whole subject of the painting.
What Elements can be Used in a Still Life Painting?
Flowers and fruit have traditionally been part of still life paintings, but anything that you can bring into your studio and make part of your composition can be used in a still life painting. You should paint from actual objects that are in front of you, not from memory for this project. Painting a still life gives you the time and opportunity for careful observation of the forms of objects, the colors in shadows, reflected color, and negative space.
What Kind of Red Object Should You Select?
The choice is yours -- it's your painting, after all. It could be a length of red cloth placed under some pieces of fruit (you'd get some lovely reflected color on yellow apples, for example), a red shirt draped over a chair, a bunch of red flowers, a red soft-toy, a red pair of shoes, a collection of lipsticks, a jug with red juice in it, a glass of red wine
knocked over on a white tablecloth, red office stationery, a ball of red knitting wool, a pile of jellybeans with all the red ones grouped together, a watermelon sliced open.
How Many Objects should You Include?
Again, the choice is yours. But don't just grab some objects, drop them down, and begin to paint. Take your time to arrange them, do thumbnail sketches of various arrangements to see which composition is the strongest.
Submission: Please note that new submissions for this project gallery are currently not being accepted. Check the list of monthly painting projects to see what this month's project is. This doesn't mean you shouldn't tackle this particular project, just that if you want feedback on your project painting you need to post a photo of it in the Painting Forum (in the Painting Projects Folder).