100 Paintings by Adam

Month: December 2010

Take a Peek

So, I decided to do a little set of bowls and cups for the three. I’d been pretty locked into the pomegranates for a week or so and the shift was a little harder than I imagined. I’ve struggled all year with cups and solid, non-organic objects but I thought it would be good to give it a try.

This one is not bad but it’s a long way off from No. 84 which is a little disappointing. The brown mug is actually pretty much what that looks like but something is lacking. Leslie keeps busting on me for using a white background and I think she’s right. If I had done this on a bright red or blue background it might have popped a little more. Oh well, learning it what it’s all about.

View the Post

Daisies

Number 84 is a little bit of a stretch based on the last few. I wanted to do one more with the pomegranates and ended up having some flowers so I added them in as well. Evi officially became a “daisy” and we had to bring the flowers for the get together. I figured I would get a little extra mileage out of them.

I did most of this in one sitting. These more complicated ones are like walking a tightrope. You’ve got glass, fruit, petals, stems, background – lots of moving parts here. I was just hoping that it would be a cohesive image and overall I was pretty happy.

This is the last of the pomegranates for the year. They were fun to paint but I’ve got to keep moving.

View the Post

Pomegranates on Blue

I had been really hyper-focused on the composition and precision with 81 & 82 that when I sat down to do this one I wanted to just paint. No drawing on the canvas, no underpainting, no sketching. So I started and it came to life pretty fast. I feel good about this one and it’s probably the closest I can get to what’s in my head for these. It’s nice that it happened on this one too because it’s a (relatively) big, 16″ x 8″ stretched canvas.

It’s paintings like this that make me think this year has been worth it. Going back and looking at No. 1 there is just a real difference. There is no way possible I could have sat down in January and done something like this. It’s like being on a diet for 11 months and finally realizing you’ve lost weight.

View the Post

Pomegranates & Vase

No 82 is another one with pomegranates and I added in the same vase from No. 14 way back in February. I made a very deliberate attempt with 82 to slow way down and only lay down the minimum variances to make it look like a pomegranate. The last two felt like they had too many brush strokes and I was trying to experiment with using fewer strokes. I’m really happy with the result but it’s not as gnarly as it probably should be.

I was also really excited about the butterfly on the vase. If you try to paint a butterfly it would look 100%, totally awful. I’ve learned this. So I took a deep breath and just put down the little blobs and blips. I was praying it would work because I was so happy with the pomegranates and am glad it did.

View the Post

What’s Inside

With No. 81 we now have three pomegranates and a bowl has been added into the mix. They look like they are slowly creeping up to the bowl to see what this strange object is.

I felt a little more at ease with this one but it was still disorienting to try and actually paint what I was looking at. There are hundreds of planes on the pomegranates and you have to leave things out in order to not make it look like a mess.

View the Post

About Adam Houston

Adam Houston is an American impressionist oil painter. He lives outside of Athens, GA and paints the landscape of the surrounding country. In 2010 he began the blog 100 Paintings by Adam where he documented his progress as an artist.  

Subscribe to My Newsletter

Archives

©2020 Adam Houston Art, All Rights Reserved