Veg Van painting completed

Here is the final result of the painting for the vegetable van. I will do one more, I think. After all, the van has 2 sides! I thought about taking more pictures along the way but kept telling myself I was almost finished, so I might as well wait. Then, of course, it was another week before it was really finished. That's how it always is with me, I think I'm almost done, then I'm not. My apologies to those who wanted more "in progress" photos.

I hope if you see this painting driving around town this summer, you will let me know. And please visit the farmer's market too, the vegetables there are beautiful, fresh, and delicious!

Oil on linen, 12' x 24"

This one is not for sale yet. After we get the image onto the van, I will price it. If you are interested in a purchase, please contact me at info@carollambertarts.com

Veg Van painting in progress

I hope you are still interested in seeing "in progress" posts. Here is 1.5 day's worth of progress on what I have now dubbed "Veg Van painting #1". This is a project I am doing in collaboration with my friend Alison, for Glacier Valley Farm Community Supported Agriculture. The farm van will display a blow-up of this painting on the side. With luck, I will be able to do a #2 so there will be different paintings on each side of the van. This is all to support and promote consumption of our wonderful Alaska grown produce!

I started by making a charcoal sketch directly on the linen. I skipped the underpainting stage as I needed to work fast with the perishables. As you can see, I made some compositional changes as I worked. It is such a challenge to work with vegetable greens that wilt! They are now completely flat, so from here I will be using the reference photos I took when I initially arranged my models. As I work, I try to envision what this will look like at approximately 6 x 12 feet in size!

At some point this painting will be for sale, but there is quite a bit more work to do on it, so I will now get myself back into the studio for the rest of the day!

Hand Drill, completed

Here is the final result of some months of work on the hand drill painting. Below are a few more photos of work in progress since my last post.


I took this as I began to finish the lower part of the drapery and the drill.


Going a little further to refine the drapery and the values.

I began this painting in November 2007, put it aside for quite a while, and picked it up again in December of 2008.

Yes, I had the set up in my studio for all those months! I needed to move it a few times, so the drapery was disturbed from its original position. I rearranged the drapery as I worked.

If you compare the finished piece to the "in progress" photos in this and the previous post, you will see changes in the drawing, the edges, and the drapery of the lower half.

Normally, I try to keep all parts of a painting moving forward at the same pace, but this one had "arrested development." For all these reasons, the top and bottom parts of the painting were completed at different times.

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the "in progress" post!

24" x 12" oil on linen panel

No price on this one yet, but if you are interested in a purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com