Red Hot - Original Still Life in Oils

This is one of my "Study in Red" pieces from a couple of months ago. When I painted it, I had for some reason a lot of yellow and blue on my palette and so I mixed it all up, greyed it a bit and went in for a largely green background. And then for the next paintings in the series, I deliberately went in for a green background so that they would look good together. Huh! 

This painting has been sitting in front of me since then, and every time the intensity of colours bothered me. I wasn't sure if the complementary background was working all that well or not. Anyway, since it did not find a new home, I wanted to change a few things. Firstly, I muted the background a lot so that now it doesn't hurt my eyes so much! :-) I also fixed some of the values in the reds. The whole point of the studies was to get better at reading values in red, and this time around I felt I could do a little better. I did fix some things and it is an all new painting now. Hope you like it.

Red Hot!
Oil on board, 6 by6  inches
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Study in Red #4 - Original Still Life in Oils

My favourite of the peppers so far, hope you like it too! :-)

Study in Red #4
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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SOLD - Study in Red - Original Still Life in Oils, 6 by 6 inches

If there is one thing that I'd like to change about my work, top of the list would be to stop overworking my pieces. There are of course a lot of things that I want to improve upon, but this is number one without a doubt. I just do not convey what I intend to with minimal strokes. It is something that I am aware of and continuously strive to improve. First thing that I did earlier this year was to banish my smallest brushes from the studio. I am now accustomed to bigger brushes, but still not quite where I want to be in terms of strokes. This painting is my first deliberate study in that direction. 

Study in Red
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

I paused before each stroke to evaluate its merit. Made me think and work in a more deliberate manner. I did not count the strokes in this one, I will do it in my future studies.