Kitchen Utensils

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This is a little watercolor I just painted in the last forty-five minutes from start to finish. I set this ceramic container with our kitchen utensils on my studio desk, set up a lamp to project the light and resultant shadows and painted it quickly from life. 

We are replacing our kitchen counter and double sink with a much improved version. Thus, our kitchen is in disarray. Seeing familiar items in unusual places makes me perceive them differently. Our ceramic container with its varying colors of ladles, wooden spoons and spatulas seemed like it might be quite attractive in warm interior light.

To get the speckled blue look of the container I sprinkled table salt immediately after I applied the blue wash. In the first wash, the warm tan color you see in the background was applied wet-on-wet. That is wet brush on wet paper. The other technique I used was wet brush on dry paper for the individual utensils. 

I like the fresh look and simple composition. It is a nice change of pace to try to create a painting so quickly.