Chromatic cups

“Chromatic Cups”, ©Jill Rosoff 2009, 6″ x 10 1/4″, $195.00, framed

This set of four espresso cups has appeared in many of my Coffee Cup series of paintings.  I found them years ago in San Francisco, I think, when I lived in Berkeley.  The colors caught my eye and I was smitten, which happens to me so often.  I thought I’d use them for  espresso, but they have modeled more often for paintings.  I like my espresso a’ latte!

I’m often in a place in one of these paintings where I want to show a difference between a shadow that is cast which is the result of bright light being blocked, and the shade on the side of an object that faces away from the light source.  Its a test to convincingly illustrate the differences–one is a surface in shade, the other is the blocking of light by an object on a surface.  Where is a shadow that is cast versus where is the lack of direct light.

Cups and squiggles

“Two Demitasse on tablecloth” ©Jill Rosoff 2009, 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″, $65.00

One of the interesting things about this series coffee cup pieces is the choices I have for the environment the coffee cups are set in. More often than not in my mind its a kitchen or breakfast table, near a window with a view to a garden and sunshine is pouring in.    The visual questions are along the lines of:  will the focus be more on an architectural kind of layout, the color composition, or on the cups, the table surface, the other elements of the painting?  Ultimately the painting’s completion is due to a combination of them, but the journey on each piece is different.

If you can smell the coffee and the hot croissants…ahhh!  so much the better.

More Gerberas

“Gerberas in Green Bottle” ©Jill Rosoff 2009, sample clip of painting in progress

I first saw gerberas when I was working in a law firm (really!) in San Francisco oh so many years ago.  One day the sole female partner brought a bunch of them in to put in her office.  It was a ‘wow’ moment for me, watching her walk by with the bouquet.  I honestly didn’t believe they were real flowers.  I was enthralled with the oh-so-long stems, the vivid colors, and all of those long daisy petals.  And the backs of the petals were a whole different color, but really, simply a paler tone of the frontside color.  They were like bright fireworks frozen on to the end of an impossibly long stem.

What I’m showing here is just one section of a new painting in progress, a tall, narrow piece.  The full painting is 6″ wide by 24″ long.  I wanted to show just this bit of it here, zeroing on the petals.  The finished painting shows the full-length flowers and stems in a green glass bottle.  It will be available through my website (click on the orange tulips over there on the right) once it’s completed.

A side note, from the ‘who knew’ file: the stats for this blog show that ‘gerber daisies’ is one of the top searches and most often viewed posts on my page.  so thanks to all who look for and find the paintings!!

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