My mom got me this water spraying misting fan last year. It has a battery and when you press the button on top, the fan starts to rotate. Then when you pull the lever in front it blows a nice, refreshing cloud of mist in your face.
I was recording the painting progress, but half way through, the software crashed and it didn’t save the video. I did not make pictures either, so no progress video/images this time, sorry!
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×18 cm / 9×7 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
Original painting progress of a painting showing a first person view of a gamer, a ps4 gaming headset and a PlayStation Dualshock 4 controller by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
This painting shows a first view of a gamer sitting on a couch (although not visible in the artwork), a gaming headset and a Playstation controller. Another relatively quick speed painting. No serious preparations, I just created a Vermillion background, outlined my composition with some Primary Cyan. Then I started filling the piece with color, working my way down to the smaller details, although I purposely gave it a somewhat unfinished and loose look.
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×18 cm / 9×7 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
I did not have a lot of time to create a painting this day, but I had some leftover paint on my palette from a couple of days ago and decided to use it to make a small speed painting.
It was a sunny day and I this made me want to create a small still life of some personal belongings you often take with you on days like these.
As I mentioned I used the paint that was still on my palette. It was already starting to dry up which complicated things. I had to work quick and dirty :). I quickly covered my background with some Vermillion, painted the outlines and shadows of the objects with some primary Cyan and started filling everything with color. The small still life is very simple with lots of the background color coming through the top layer, which in my opinion creates a cool effect. However, I looked at the piece the next day and thought it was missing some color. So I changed the background color as you can see in the image on top of this page.
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×18 cm / 9×7 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
Tried something new this time. In some of my previous paintings I started with Vermillion as my base layer. To see what surprises may happen, I tried Magenta this time. next I created outlines and used green which I already mixed to paint my cucumber with. Then I started coloring in the main colors of the cucumber and used a blueish / purple tone for my background. Because I wanted parts of the Magenta background to come through, I did not totally cover it.
hen I did the same for the surface; in my reference, the glass and cucumber were laying on a cutting board made of wood. I replaced this by using an almost white color, because I thought it would work well together with the magenta and background and it would create a nice contrast at the same time. Definitely out of my comfort zone, but this was an interesting little piece to work on.
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×18 cm / 9×7 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
A different day, a different painting subject. Tabasco bottles have been painted countless times, so it’s not the most original subject. To give it a twist I put the bottle on its side. This actually made it a lot harder to paint for me. I struggled with the proportions and symmetry. All in all, good practice!
The approach is similar to the previous painting(s). I painted the outlines of my subject with a color already close to the colour of the sauce (mixed some magenta with yellow and a tiny bit of cyan). Then I painted in the dark/shadow parts using that same color. after this it was basically a matter of adding the green label, the background, some darker and lighter values for the sauce and adding some smaller text and highlights to the bottle. I used the main features of the bottle and left out all the small details because I painted quite fast and all the smaller bits don’t fit in with the overall level of detail of this piece.
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×18 cm / 9×7 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
So, somewhere this week we came back from an afternoon drive and had not prepared dinner and decided to go through the McDrive. This was an interesting experience in itself with Covid-19 going on. Payment devices and meals were being handed out to customers with trays on sticks.
Anyway, after finishing my ‘Double Tasty’ (never having that one again, should have sticked with my quarter pounder menu) I looked at the carton holding our medium and large-sized strawberry milkshakes and thought it would make a nice painting to remember that evening by.
So far for the little background story, now for the approach. I really didn’t think about an approach for this art piece and did not even prepare the canvas this time. I started painting with the paint left on my canvas from the day before. So I used vermillion (the red-orange paint) to create my line work/composition.
Then I thought, together with The yellow M’s and the vermillion of the outlines coming through here and there, teal could work well as a background. So I painted teal around the cups to see how that looked. Next I put in the shadows of the paper cups, using a mixture of white, magenta, cyan and primary yellow and did the same for the cartboard carrier tray that holds the cups by adding some more magenta and blue to create darker shadows.
From that point onward it was just a matter of putting in details, highlights and filling the background. The piece remained quite loose and rough looking.
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×18 cm / 9×7 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
Probably one of the most well known sambals (at least in The Netherlands). For this one-day speed painting, I prepared the canvas by covering it with a mixture of white gesso and vermillion (red-0range). Next I created my under drawing (just the linework, no values) to make sure my composition and proportions were acceptable. After this I started filling the jar with dark tones. This gave me a better idea of what color I could use for the background (I did not use the actual color from the reference I used). When I do use the color from reference, I often start with the background before working on the subject. But to me, there really is no correct approach.
Anyway, with the background colors visible, I started working on the details like highlights and shadows. Because for these speed paintings, my time is limited, I try to make sure the painting progresses nicely and in each stage, all parts have the same level of detail. Of course when you want to focus on a specific part of your artwork (like the jar in my case) you can choose to add some more details to it.
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×18 cm / 9×7 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
This painting developed in an unexpected way. With Easter around the corner, I started painting an egg I boiled that morning. As I progressed, I decided for a change I did not want to paint the real-life background. So, I started to experiment.
I thought about the colors that would work well together and wanted to keep part of the bright orange background. I like blue with orange and I think it goes well with the yellow of the egg as well. So, blue it was. You can clearly see in the video that I did not have very clear idea of what the artwork should end up looking like. I kept changing and trying things and eventually it became a very vibrant and expressive piece. Almost like a can of paint splattered onto the wall behind the egg.
Original Painting
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×30 cm / 9×11 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
Original painting of some Indonesian herbs and spices by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Herbs and spices’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Description
The video above speaks for itself, but the progress is similar to what I’ve been doing lately. I prepared my canvas with some gesso, mixed with Vermillion. Then I started to create the lines of my subject with primary cyan to make sure my composition was good enough in terms of size and proportions. Next step was adding in the background and the surface. Then I started filling the plastic containers and finished by adding some smaller details like shadows and highlights.
The herbs and spices I used as a subject come from the Indonesian (in my case Dutch-Indonesian) cuisine.
My dad was born in the Dutch East Indies (a Dutch colony now Indonesia). He was of mixed European and Indonesian descent, meaning his ancestors were both Indonesian and European. When he came to the Netherlands with his parents, brother and sister in the fifties, he took a lot of his country of birth with him. Think of music, food, attitude and behavior. After marrying my (Dutch) mom, my brother and I grew up with both Dutch and Indo influences. This sometimes shows in my art as well.
Anyway, one of the things about my roots I enjoy very much is the food. I like to cook (and eat) and this subject shows some herbs and spices typically used in the Indo cuisine. Now you can see we buy the herbs and spices in these plastic containers because lots of dishes use a lot of this stuff (several teaspoons of each). So better make sure you have some stock!
Showing in the painting (from top to bottom): Coriander (Ketumbar), Candle Nuts (Kemiri), Cumin (Jinten) and Turmeric (Kunyit/Kunir).
Original Painting
Just one in the world
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 24×30 cm / 9×11 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black |White
