Glass, glass and more glass!

I have been collecting vintage and new tinted glass bottles all summer.

This painting started out as a study of light through glass with only one bottle, and then another and another until it grew into this monster project on a full sheet of paper.

When I was in college one of my favorite teachers was Professor Louise Stahl.

I was lucky enough to get into her Color Theory class Sphomore year.

One assignment was to set up an abstract painting using only the tinted lights crossing 

and overlapping within a light booth.

Since I pretty much just drew my way through college, 

this was very different and challenging for me.

But probably the class I learned the most from that year.

This painting is in homage to a fabulous teacher and a great learning process.

My interests here are reflection, refraction and most of all the light.

I'm a bit obsessed with this idea right now and most mornings can't wait to get back to my table!

I don't know if this will be a keeper but I'll keep plowing through to find out.

I'll be back with more progress.  Stay tuned!

Signature Membership!

On Sunday I was honored to receive Signature Membership into

The Philadelphia Watercolor Society.

It is my first Signature Membership and all the more special because it is with my 

hometown organization.

This years show recieved hundreds of entries but selected only 75 pieces.

The gallery was large, open and well lit.

The two last photos are from PWCS


The reception was very well attended and with my family and friends there made for a perfect day.
All the hardworking and dedicated board members of PWCS put together
a lovely event from unpacking and hanging paintings to preparing the appitizer table.
I am so grateful to do this work and honored to be included with this room full of
outstanding artists.

Flowers, Tinted Glass and Pattern on Pattern

By now you know that I love complications.

Pattern on pattern, complementary colors, reflected and refracted surfaces

all make me very happy.  When they all appear in one painting, 

well, I'm over the moon the whole time I'm working.

"Summer Harvest"
Watercolor, 18" x 24"
©Carmella Tuliszewski

I have written in my previous posts about setting up and shooting this still life.

I love overhead viewpoints for a more dramatic effect.

I found this arrangement quite by accident.
I had laid all the elements down and was prepared to put a more organized set up together.
Before I started moving things around I noticed how interesting it was just as is.
A few little tweeks here and there and I was ready.
The whole composition sweeps up to the focal point in the upper right corner.
The lillies on the left could even be mistaken for a part of the fabric while your eye follows the movement to the upper right where the bottle stands up and grabs your full attention.
At least that's the way I hope it works!

But I saved painting the tinted green glass bottle for last because,
honestly, I didn't know what I was doing with that part of the image.

When I finally got to it, all the swirling, bubbling colors and values were a bit dizzying.

So I backed away from it for a day and reacquainted myself with a 

contemporary still life painter that I have admired for decades.

Janet Fish paints sunny jam packed paintings of which glass is a key feature in most of her work.

What I learned is that painting colored glass is less about blending and more about fitting 

separate color shapes together like a jigsaw puzzle.

It took awhile to get started but once I thought of it as putting a puzzle together,

one shape built on another and so on.

I have been collecting tinted bottles all summer.

I've found forgotten ones in the back of my own cuboards and during my many thrift store trips.
All different colors and shapes.
I have an idea brewing for how to put them together.
Until next time, I thank you for stopping by!