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Saturday 8 January 2011

Willem Kalf and still life



I have pushed on with the still life today. It is mostly done now. When it has dried a bit I will do the final details and clean up a couple of the edges. I confess I did make one mistake I dragged my hand through part of the painting. This is not to be recommended and it did result in a mild rebuke to myself. Still I repainted it fairly quickly.


I don’t do many still life paintings but it is nice to have a change. The still life artist who I most admire is the Dutch artist Willem Kalf. His  famous painting of, Still life with drinking horn, is in the National Gallery London. It shows a drinking horn with a silver mount amongst  varied textured objects including a lobster.

Willem was a good businessman. He chose his subjects carefully. Originally he painted every day kitchen and farmyard scenes, but then moved on to painting opulent subjects, which would appeal to those wealthy patrons who could afford his work. To be successful you must paint what people want to buy. It’s just as true today as it was then.
Alex is on her way back today, which is good news. A day off painting tomorrow, well maybe.

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