Ready for some color?
Carol Marine is another Daily Painter whose work I just can’t get enough of. Most of her artwork features apples, plums, cherries, and other fruit, simply arranged with dishes and pottery—but it’s her use of color that makes her paintings really pop.
Even in her more subtle pieces, there’s color galore. Take a look at this first painting, and especially at that single stripe of vivid blue reflected from the tan coffee mug.
Now that’s how you paint a reflection. For me, this whole painting revolves around that one spot—showing the interplay between the pitcher and the mug. And how about that sliver of green on the bottom of the mug handle as well? Perfect.
Carol depicts reflected color in almost all of her work, and (if you’ll pardon the pun) it really is the highlight of her paintings.
That color is there in real life, and yet a lot of other artists either wouldn’t paint it or don’t know how to look for it. But it’s those reflections that visually create her solid shapes, and without them her paintings wouldn’t be half as interesting.
Of course, her compositions are perfect as well, showing a great understanding and use of negative space.
In this piece, titled Red, Carol created a nicely balanced painting without shying away from using that vibrant red pitcher. She set the pitcher and flowers off to one side (you can almost taste that color, can’t you?) and gave the dark blue wall just enough space to hold its own, allowing your eyes a place to rest.
My favorite Carol Marine painting, however, is this one.
The colors are absolutely fantastic, with different shades and tints of green and red; it has contrast in both size and number between the apples and the cherry; and there are some amazing reflections again, this time shaping the curves of those glossy green apples which you could practically take a bite out of.
I deliberately showed you some of Carol Marine’s paintings that were still available, so head on over to her daily painting blog if you want to buy one of these or see her other work.
And remember, she’s a daily painter, so if you feel the need for an apple a day (or plum, or cherry) don’t forget to bookmark her website and keep checking back.
