Over the past month or so I’ve been meeting with one of my artist friends to paint in my studio. It’s been a great experience because we each contribute something new to the prospective arrangement. I love the infusion of new items which bring a fresh light and energy into the work.
This arrangement is one my friend brought over. A couple of lovely artichokes and a floral printed plate. There was an entirely different feel to the set up that was refreshing. I hadn’t painted artichokes in a long time. Actually, I was a little nervous and forgot how great they are as a subject. The triangular leaves and texture of an artichoke have personality and substance. The green color is awesome! The plate was black with yellow, pink and green patterning which was fun. I didn’t want to work with black so infused a deep reddish-purple color as a replacement. The floral motif in the background came from a piece of fabric I tacked to the wall for fun.
In thinking about a title, I did a little research on artichokes and was reminded they are Mediterranean in origin. The more I considered this the more I connected to that aspect of the entire painting. In some way it felt like feasting on the treasures of a different part of the world. Enjoy!
Categories: New Paintings, Still Life, Still Life
RENDERED IMPRESSIONS / Original Oil Paintings by Catherine J. Martzloff 
Love how you painted this, Cathy!! Love those deep olive greens, or in this case, artichoke greens. I’m about to jump into my dry pastels and so I spent a lot of time looking how simply you made depth and 3D affect with different shades of color and contrast. Thank you for sharing this!!