Still Life with Hydrangeas - Work in Progress

Been a long time since I did a still life, isn't it?! I've been so full of flowers of late that I haven't done anything else in quite some time. I was feeling like starting a still life, so finally! The set up was done and photographed over size months back. We moved houses last November and I picked up this vase from Ikea. I loved the color and wanted to use it in a still life, apart from using it for home decor. I also picked up a couple of stalks of hydrangeas. So these aren't real flowers after all! :-)

Since most of my still lifes so far have been only with fruit and/or fabric, I wanted to bring in some change in this one and so decided on the vase as the point of focus. Also had some plums with me at that time and I just strew them around casually just like that. And introduced a piece of lace cloth too. I love painting lace, and haven't painted it after my Apples and Lace. So far as I have mentioned quite a few times already, I have photographed all my set ups only in broad daylight. This one is a departure from that too. I shot this reference with a very dim light, almost creating the effect of a candle light.

Still Life with Hydrangeas - Work in Progress
Acrylics on Canvas, 12 by 16 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

I had actually started this piece soon after I photographed it, but it was lying untouched all these months. I had just done an outline and had barely started blocking in some color when I got distracted with doing other subjects. It occurred to me couple of days ago that this one was unfinished and I could try it now with textures. When I had kept it aside it was progressing with a brush only, but then I just picked it up this morning and gessoed it completely. I am weird that way, I could've took off from where I left, but the progress thus far did not really appeal to me now. So decided to start afresh and started completely with the knife. I think it has a couple of more hours of work left, I hope to complete it tomorrow.

This is also my biggest still life after Apples and Lace, which was also the same size. Let me know what you think of this one, how you like it so far. And, there is something more interesting coming up along with this piece, which I do not want to reveal now. Stay tuned.