My Nana’s Tea

My Nana’s Tea

My Nana’s Tea features a cup of tea from the antique china set I inherited from my nana; this is my favorite still life to date.

My preferred method of working is to paint “from life” instead of from a photograph. An artist experiences so much more color and emotion painting this way, and the results from this discipline are worth the effort. Most of my still lifes and small portraits and landscapes are painted from life. The larger studio pieces are painted from photographs for convenience’s sake, but I still attempt to paint quickly and decisively for the beautiful edges that can be achieved with wet paint. This painting method is called “alla prima.”