White Vase - Still life

Painting still life is a restful and cathartic experience for me.  I've been distracted from the easel lately by many things.  Home improvement projects have demanded a lot of time and mental energy for planning and negotiating...but so far have gone well, thankfully.  And the office is busier than it has been in a long time as we finally begin to recover from the long recession / depression.  These are all good things, but they demand mental energy that might otherwise be channeled into the studio.

At these times when creative energy is at a low and the urge to paint is almost nonexistent, still life comes to the rescue.   In this case, I found some fake - yes, not real - 'flowers', a vase, and a brass bowl.  With a few apples and an orange, I was ready to go and painting in minutes.  I didn't worry about 'symbolism' or complexity....I just wanted to paint and forget other demands for awhile.

White Vase    Oil on stretched canvas   16 x 20

The very light area at the right is a light reflection ....that area is actually very dark.  


My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

Campaspe - Best in Show!

Well, talk about pleasant surprises!  I checked in with the Sacramento Fine Arts Center to see if my version of John Godward's Campaspe had been accepted into the "In the Style of the Old Masters" show at their gallery....and I found that not only had it been accepted, but it won Best In Show!

I'd love to take full credit, but obviously Mr. Godward created the beautiful "Campaspe" about 100 years or more before I even knew what (or who) a "Campaspe" was.  I thoroughly enjoyed copying  a portion of his incredible work...and maybe modernizing it just slightly, more from a lack of ability to copy his work faithfully than from a plan.  The work of these artists of the "classical" period has been unappreciated for a long time, but the more I learn about and study them, the more I am at a loss to explain why.  John W. Godward created a masterful work in every way.








My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art