Category Archives: still lifes

An Oil Painting Class Still Life

Of the most common media available to me as an artist, I have never created an oil painting. So this was my first! A member of the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators invited other members to an oil painting instruction class, a room full of experienced professional creative people who all had varied experience in oil […]

January Geraniums, Thinking of Spring

Every autumn I move my geraniums into the house. For decades it was the back corner of the basement, but once I began using that area as studio space and there wasn’t really any alternative down there, I started keeping them at upstairs windows. They are just as happy, still get their slight dormant period […]

Angled Winter Sun, Winter Still Life, Fresh and Vintage

Winter Still Life, pastel, 8 x 10, 2014 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

That deeply angled winter sunlight reaches farther into the windows than summer sunlight, into the corner with the fruit bowl. I’ve been looking at the late afternoon sun hitting this vintage ceramic bowl where I keep my apples and enjoying the shapes of the apples, the reflections on the bowl with its uneven design in […]

The Inspiration of Clementines

Clementines, pastel, 10" x 5", 2014 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

This is the cool thing about being an artist: anything can be an inspiration, including the angled autumn sun on some clementines you just bought, and you not only get to paint them, but then you get to eat them. It’s a great deal. This painting is done entirely in Sennelier soft pastels on Fabriano […]

Squashes, Still Life in Oil Pastel

Squashes, 12 x 12,oil pastel, 1998 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I had painted “Green Apples” earlier that year, and the woman who purchased it decided that she would like two paintings for the spot, identical in size, matting and framing and perhaps style. We discussed several subjects, but as the summer waned and she mentioned golds and earth tones, I knew it had to be […]

A Small Still Life, Small Roses

Small Roses, pastel, 10" x 6", 2001 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Just one little sliver of sunlight crept through the blind and that was all it took to illuminate these old roses in a tiny glass vase. I stood in my kitchen and sketched this as quickly as possible before the light changed. These are roses that I grow, an unbelievably bright pink pasture rose and […]

Some Tulips in a Teapot, “Tea for Tulips”

Tea for Tulips, watercolor, 12 x 16 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I knew I’d love to paint the tulips, but I really needed to learn to paint the rust on the teapot. I intentionally kept the background vague and loose in shades of green and neutral tones to complement the brilliant reds, oranges and yellows and extreme detail in each of the tulips. The frothy white […]

April 8, 2006, the Day I Took the Photo of “Blue and Yellow”

Blue and Yellow, Watercolor, 8.25 x 8.25, 2022 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski.

I download my photos from my DSLR into daily folders named with the date and today I happened to be in the folder for April 6, 2006 and saw the photo that became the reference for this painting. Yes, it’s that magic light as the angle of the sun rises and sunlight reaches way into […]

Still Life, Angled Sun, Fresh and Vintage

That deeply angled winter sunlight reaches farther into the windows than summer sunlight, into the corner with the fruit bowl. I remember studying the late afternoon sun hitting this vintage ceramic bowl where I kept my apples and enjoying the shapes of the apples, the reflections on the bowl with its uneven design in indigo […]