Tracey Costescu Fine Art

Join me for a free demo at Coquitlam's Opus Art Store on November 18.  Creating a still life starts long before the brush hits the canvas.  We will start with tips on how to set up and light your still life, choosing materials and discuss various processes that can be employed to paint without solvents. We will also cover the different methods of painting a still life, Alla Prima (direct) vs Classical (indirect).  Examples of each method will be shown at various stages which will hopefully will inspire you to paint a still life the way that suits you best. Space is limited and registration is required. Please visit Opus Coquitlam or contact them at 604‑545‑0410 to register. https://opusartsupplies.com/how/demos/art-still-life-non-toxic-oils

Blue Vase, Green Apples - 6x8" Oil on Paper Canvas This is a little alla prima painting I painted yesterday in my studio, SO much fun!  The blue vase I found last week at the thrift store and love it.  I have been hunting for simple ceramic bowls and vases to paint and got very lucky with this one as it was exactly what I was looking for. I usually paint using the indirect method but as I am short on time in the studio over the summer, I wanted to try alla prima so I could get in & get out all in one day as who knows when I can get back in the studio in this heat! I used a very limited palette, only the three primary colors and burnt umber and white which is the same palette I use for plein air painting.  Using a limited palette really simplifies the painting process and makes the painting feel more harmonious...plus I manage to keep my palette so much more organized and clean! I will have to take a photo of my palette next time.  This was painted from ...

Sea Shell Study - 8x10" Oil on Panel This is the third stage of the sea shell painting I have been working on.  The first session I painted the open grisaille and the second session I painted the closed grisaille .  This session I use a full color palette of colors that I had premixed. I mixed up strings of yellow, orange and purple for the shell.  For the cloth I mixed up a string of blue.  Mixing up strings takes a bit of time but make the painting process so much more enjoyable as I do not need to think about color as much and I can focus on just painting.  With the premixed colors, I still need to mix during the painting process, but only small adjustments to shift the value, hue and chroma as needed. Of course I was making drawing adjustments all the way along. Even if I had done a drawing prior to starting painting I would be doing drawing adjustments but they would be much smaller adjustments.  As I drew directly with paint for drawing, ...

Closed Grisaille - Oil on Panel 8x8" This is the second stage of the sea shell painting I started earlier this week.  The first session I painted the open grisaille which is just a painting completed entirely using very thin layer of an earth color such as burnt umber, burnt sienna or in this case, asphaltum.The toned or white substrate shows through slightly.  I used a flat stiff brush and mineral spirits with the asphaltum to draw out the basic shape of the shell using straight lines and focusing on angles and shapes, trying to not think of the actual object as a shell but as a series of puzzle shapes. Once the open grisaille was dry, I used my premixed tubes of neutral grays to paint the closed grisaille.  The closed grisaille is a painting usually using neutral grays that allows the artist to focus on the value structure without the complexity of color.  I have values pre-mixed and tubed from a value 2 neutral gray to a value 9, titanium white is a valu...

Open Grisaille - Oil on Panel 6x8" well that is what I planned on doing this morning.  I thought I would start with a quick underpainting of a seashell that I have.  I set up the lights and quickly blocked in the angles and shape of the seashell on my panel using diluted asphaltum oil paint with mineral spirits. Then I got sucked in and rather than moving onto the color portion of painting, I ended up painting a very developed underpainting or open grisaille.  Oh well, it was too much fun to stop.  Working from life is so much fun, hard, but fun.   This will give me a chance to mix my paints properly while the first layer dries.  I have several shells that I have collected over the years so I plan to do at least on painting alla prima of a seashell....or many indirect seashell paintings.