Making Still Life Dance

"Green Apples and Grapes" (c) Mary Hubley 6 x 6

Still life paintings are, well, still. The subject matter is calm, still, serene, and, well, maybe a bit dull. 

Don't get me wrong -- I love a beautiful table arrangement, but jeez... after a while of seeing them, they can be a bit boring. I mean, just take a walk through a gallery full of paintings with fruit in a bowl on a white tablecloth and background drapes. How long will you want to linger on each one?

As a painter, my job is to get people to linger over my art. Subject matter shouldn't matter -- I find the duller the better, because that's my chance to jazz things up!

The way to make people notice your work is to play a bit -- break away from how you think you should paint and try something new sometimes. Here are a few things to try:

• Get looser. 
• Play with giving round shapes squared edges, or square edges round ones. 
• Paint with very large brushes, or very small brushes. 
• Bump up the color vibrancy or reduce the whole thing to a monotone. 
• Play with composition -- make objects dance off the page or lay on a small space on the edge of it. 
• Dump realism and make it abstract.
• Go for too-high contrasts and too-deep shadows.

The point is, try something quite different -- it doesn't matter what the end result will be. It doesn't matter if the result will be gallery-worthy. The point is to play and expand your world with fresh ideas in how to approach a subject. The objective, of course, is to make your paintings fresh and alive. There's really no risk to trying something new; the up-side is that you might be surprised at how it can improve your work.

--- Mary Hubley