Results of Painting with Susan Sarback

The final session of painting classes with Susan Sarback is arriving soon, and these are the pieces that came out of it, plus one that I played with on my own. I can say that I've expanded my skillset, and I'm curious to see how the techniques I've been exposed to will translate in my own works. S. Sarback is a colorist, which works well with my own way of painting and creating. My feeling is that it will mesh well, when applied to my own strange methods of working.



The sunflowers and spitoon were fun to do, but in reality I was more interested in the pot, and the sunflowers were supposed to be the focal point. I have an old brass spitoon serving as a wastebasket in my bathroom, maybe I'll play with that someday.


The poppies turned out well, don't feel like throwing it under a bus. During this class, I worked with pallet knife instead of a brush. Going to have to relearn brushwork with the new color theory and application.



The blue bottle was actually a pain in the patootie, but I learned a bunch.



I'm happy with what happened with the Peaches and Pears, but part of me wants to go back and work on it more. Susan's preference is not to get too fussy on the details, and I itch to add stuff to it. We will see how that tug-of-war comes out. Maybe some subtle glazes with a brush to add some complexity to the colors and...


One of the hazards of starting to paint is that now I am goint to have to figure out a storage system. I thought about that, and decided to begin this new part of my creative life doing smaller pieces, so that it would be easier to store, but now it's getting to be crunch time.

And, last but not least, the sunflowers that I did at home, from a bouquet bought at Trader Joe's. This one is also something that I will probably nudge and fiddle with before I turn it loose.

The next project is probably a small Tonka dump truck I picked up at a yard sale. I've done a working sketch already, and now am ready to transfer to canvas board. Maybe Sunday...