Daily Painting

Shallot and garlic cloves

22cm x 10cm, oil on panel

Painting status: SOLD

This painting is available as a limited-edition print.

Painted Thursday, 26 January 2012 · Still life paintings

The conversation

Thoughts on this painting

11 comments

Alain

What a sun-filled atmosphere(hardly softened by some exquisite(and indispensable)touches of tender green)in which three aflame spices share a very private conversation...

Susan Caulton

Alain's lyrical waxing always adds another perspective to these little gems. Thank you Alain!

Jerome Bone

Thank you Julian for posting yet another amazing painting.
The delicacy of the brush strokes are unbelievable.
I might have said it before but can not repeat myself enough you are in the same league as Fantin Latour and John SInger Sargent when
it comes to talent.
Many congratulations
Jerome

ArtBean

Julian, this made me gasp. Just beautiful. I don't know how to put it without sounding pompous, but being able to look back through your body of work and to be able to share in seeing how you've grown as an artist, well, it feels like quite a rare privilege really.

Barbara M

The shallot and garlic seem to be happily conversing. So the warm colours are perfect in this context. This is a welcome painting on a grey, rainy/ snowy day.

anna sims

when are you going to bring out another book? I would really like to see another one. Fabulous work.
Anna

Alain

My technical observation everyday since... three years thanks to JMS works.
Virtuoso alone can paint like that,three plans or arrangements of warm colors(it is easier with cool colors):foreground,objects and background.
About the composition,the lower vessel-like dark line of the shallot "goes" to the upper left angle whereas the green stalks of the garlic show but less emphatically the upper right(therefore a blurried diagonal track above the garlic cloves on the wall subtly restores the balance),all these physical plus virtual lines in contrast with the very rectangular shape of the canvas,create an invisible and soft tension above and under the cloves seen in close up,which suggests a lively feeling emphasized by the directional variations of each brushstroke.And what to say about the horizontally shifted three focus: tender body of the shallot on one side,the little space moved on the right between the shallot and the two garlic and these latter on the other side.A "lesson" at several levels of the artistic flair and temperament of Julian.In a so small painting!

Neil Nelson

Hi Julian, It's been a little while since I looked at your site but I'm pretty blown away by your recent work - particularly this shallot and the recent garlic and bottle. It seems as though these paintings are taking on an organic form which grows within the direction of the brushstrokes - the paint "becomes" the form. Really inspiring stuff.

Neil N.

Painter’s notes

I'm benefiting from the move to Domain de Christol , which is only a few minutes drive from the studio and a few hundred yards from 'Les Gargories' the hamlet I first stayed in when I arrived here in 1998—coincidently at this time of year; a new start. I should just remind you that a larger version of the painting can be seen by going to the site and clicking on the image. This 'lightbox' system is particularly useful for letterbox shaped paintings like this.

Julian Merrow-Smith ·