Stewart Jones Art

On Saturday mornings in Sanford there is a farmers market one block away from Gallery On First. I like to walk through the market to see what there is each week before I go to the gallery to paint. This week I picked up some vegetables with the idea that I would do a still life painting of them. I put the vegetables in a basket and then looked for an angle where the composition was pleasing. It was easy to get complementary colors next to each other, reds next to green and yellow next to violet. My value study helped determine how dark or light to go with the different shapes next to the complimentary color. In Sanford we also have lots of antiques stores. Someday I hope to make a still life out of different antiques I have picked up in town.

Next month is the annual Wekiva Paint Out and I felt an urge to get a head start on painting for this event. I was working from a photograph I took last year; while taking a boat ride down the Wekiva River in Florida. I wanted to do this painting because it had some really bright areas of sunlight and reflections. I usually put blue in my skies, but this time I resisted the urge. The light of the sky was really bright and I wanted to silouette the trees in front of the sun. I put the painting in a frame and took it to Images Art Festival the next weekend. It quickly sold at that show. This painting now hangs in the Dean's office of the College of Arts & Humanities at one of our nearby colleges. Another college professor was traveling with the Dean and she bought a small painting also. Now I have a painting in Moscow. How about that?