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Artist's Notebook
To paint a canister
- by Nancy
Laura and I bought some vintage canisters on ebay for me to use as painting and drawing subjects. We thought they would make a great image for Antique Recipe Roadshow. As soon as I got them, I put two of them on my kitchen counter and got out my watercolors. I often paint little watercolors of subjects I’ve never painted before just to get my first quick impression down.
Next I tried a different canister in pastel, but I knew right away that the freshness of the pastel medium was not right for the old feeling of these dinged-up cans.
I did another pastel with more going on in the composition than just the cans. I liked the quality of the light, but I still felt that pastel was not right for this image.
In the end this painting with the more subtle qualities of oil paint captured the canisters best.


To find out about Laura's search for a long lost family recipe, click [
These are beautiful, Nan. I just wish I had half your eye for color.
-Mark
– Mark (April 23 2008 at 4:32)