If you are like me, still life paintings hold a certain, soothing calmness. While I love to paint them, they rely heavily on some good compositional skills. An online search can yield so many wonderful suggestions for painting a still life that it can be overwhelming just trying to sort through it all. With this in mind, I compiled a list of the top tips that I find the most useful in working through a little tablescape scene. I'm calling it, "A baker's dozen - 13 tips for creating a still life."

Since part of the fun of painting a still life is the arrangement process of your objects, I'm sharing a photo from my studio space that shows how I set this one up.

I keep some foam core board around for shooting images and when I want to work with a white background. I also play around with the positioning of the objects and take several photographs of the still life, which helps me decide the grouping I like best.

That leads me to our baker's dozen ...

6. Have a Focal Point
That's the center of attention that your eye goes to first, the most important element in your design. As Tony Couch (my watercolor hero) says, "Have one and have it be interesting!" A focal point can be achieved with contrast of value, color or size. You can also change the texture at the focal point to bring the eye there.

7.  Create Balance
This does not mean symmetry. It means balancing negative and positive space, lights and darks, etc... so that they eye is comfortable.

8.  Establish Movement
Move the viewer’s eye around the layout. Movements lead the viewer to your focal point and evokes emotion. It can be accomplished with lines or by repeating colors, values and shapes. In our example, I used the eucalyptus lying on the table to move the eye up to the small pumpkin and the stem of that little pumpkin, moving the eye up to the focal point.

9. Limit your palette to just four colors
A limited palette of color allows you to use those colors in each of the elements, even if it is just a touch. That gives your painting a comfortable feeling of continuity. In this example, I used Burnt Umber, Thalo Blue, Quidocridone Gold and Burnt Sienna.

10. Use colors to your advantage
One way to do this is by putting warm aggressive colors in the foreground and cool recessive colors in the background or on your background objects. Also, think about strategically putting complimentary colors next to one another in key places.

11. Start lightly
By creating a soft under-painting to begin with and gradually layering and building up repeated washes, you can feel more confident as you begin and less worried about making mistakes. The under-painting will serve as a guide.

12. Create a reverse highlight
When painting a background, darken the areas slightly around the subject matter to create interest and have your objects jump forward.

13. Remember to make those values pop!
To give the utmost force and strength to your work, some parts should be as light as possible and some as dark as possible.

Here is the finished piece. I've been wanting to paint the cotton with white pumpkins for some time, so I'm happy to have finally tackled it in time for fall.

I'm going to be selling this and a few other new fall pieces at our local farmer's market in November and a special open house sale that I am hosting at my home November 13th. Learn more and save these dates.

The client showed me swatches of the beautiful mural that she planned to put on the wall across from the piece. She also had picked out the color of paint for the wall that the artwork would rest on. This was very helpful to ensure that the piece would blend and mesh with the office environment.

I started my process by experimenting with mixing paint colors and dabbing them on little squares of watercolor paper. I wanted to get an idea of the position of my light and dark values. Also wanted to see if I could mix up those colors and get them to play well together. I made up a little sample palette for myself to work from and set aside some time to just play with colors. This proved to be very fruitful for me. Experimenting on small paper first helped me to not feel overwhelmed when tackling a very large canvas.

After mixing up larger amounts of color, I started by building up the dark background and then gradually layering in the mid tones. Since circular shapes communicate happy to me, I decided to incorporate different shapes of varying sized circles. As I layered them on, a couple of them looked like blueberries to me. I love blueberries as they ripen because of the way they bloom into soft pinks and greens. Things were beginning to come together visually. I kept building and layering in blueberries at different stages of ripening.

This challenge of making an abstract painting that communicates joy was thrilling.  While abstract pieces do  not attempt to represent reality, they do utilize shapes, hues and lines to communicate emotions.

I enjoy stepping out of my normal painting style and exploring large format pieces for grand walls that are both colorful and lively. It's invigorating to mix a little bit or realism with abstract splashes of light and textures.

Once I had the painting mostly finished, I left it up on the easel for a couple of days to look at. I often build in this window of time just to walk by and see if there are any lingering issues bothering me about a piece. Often times I see things that I'd like to correct. This time also allows me to look at the piece in different lighting with fresh, rested morning eyes.

If you have a blank space and are craving some special art to pull your room's color palette  together, feel free to reach out. This was a very large 4 x 4' piece that filled the client's wall perfectly. Whatever your room size, I'm pretty sure I can get my hands on a canvas that will work beautifully. E-mail me here to inquire about pricing.

Well simply put, you are soul weary.

Right about now, most of us are feeling heart heavy from the last few months. The barrage of imagery that we view is sad, unsettling and disturbing. That's just the political and social unrest! Discord in our own families during this time of high tensions may also be taking a toll. It's not an exaggeration to say that the isolation and lack of routine, schedule or meaningful interaction with others is unsettling. There are so many unknowns and unanswered questions that we have to try to rest in.

Normally I'm the one waving a white flag reminding myself and others to stop committing to so many things, but now feels different. Now I'm craving something on my weekly schedule that I can count on happening... something healthy, inspiring and carved out for me to look forward to.

Whatever your season of life is, Whether you are starting a new business, retiring, or wanting a little down time away from your family, consider blocking out some time to create a little beauty.

The upcoming 8 week beginner watercolor class we offer is approachable, friendly and easy to jump into. We'll meet each week via Zoom to share a virtual cup of tea (or whatever your beverage of choice is) to chat, watch me demonstrate, ask questions and paint simple projects together.

Sometimes just watching someone else (and learning) for when you feel up to painting yourself is all you can manage. I totally get that. This forum provides the space and time to allow your soul that rest and refresh opportunity.

Pursuing a hobby, sitting and learning, painting something for your home, making a note card for a friend or just to soak in the joy of creating ... it is all worth your time and effort to help you rest and journey back to peace. 

Here is more information and details about the classes.
Both the beginner and advanced art classes start up Thursday so have a look...

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. You can shoot me an e-mail, call or text me at 407-421-3198.

What a past couple of weeks it has been. We went from our daughter's graduation party to the joy of art camp to a family vacation in Colorado. I've spent the last couple of weeks getting caught up on housework and just catching my breath.

Now that my head is back above water, I've bobbed back down into painting an underwater scene. Inspired by my boys fly fishing in Colorado, I decided to learn about and paint what they caught ... a brown trout. We Florida folks are much more acquainted with bass and blue gill, but the running streams of the mountains had such a beautiful allure to them. This trip, I decided not to pack my paints (which is unusual for me). Normally, I enjoy painting as part of a relaxing vacation experience, but I think it was part exhaustion and part just wanting to focus on family time that lead me to leave them at home. Even though I didn't paint or draw a thing, my head was swimming with all of the inspiration we saw. The mountains and fir trees, the deer, moose and cliffs. Simply stunning!

My husband, Daniel and I, find that the anticipation of a vacation can be just as exhilarating as the event itself. Most years, our family makes a little countdown calendar when we are about a month away from a vacation. We sit around the table with Crayola scented or Mr. Sketch smelly markers and each of us draws a numbered page to be torn off. They look a mess and sometimes a page is as simple as the decorated day's number, but it's fun making the countdown calendar and throwing the sheets away each day in anticipation of the vacation.

Learning to paint has been such a treasure, and I love to share the joy of it through instruction. It is not enough to just show the outcome. We learn so much through the process pics. In fact, this is a wonderful movement that I fully support and embrace. Entire Instagram hashtags are dedicated to it. Check out #doitfortheprocess, and #showyourwork after you follow #caryndahm : ) .

All of this processing has me thinking about what my classes will look like for the fall. Through much prayer and thought, I've decided to embrace video chat technology for at least the next 8 weeks. Rather than, typing out instructions and pre-recording video clips, I'll be teaching via Zoom. This will give us the consistency of meeting each week and allow students to ask questions and interact while I paint. You'll have the option of painting along or simply sipping something, chatting with us and watching me demonstrate.

Being a part of weekly art classes and online forums serves multiple purposes:

• Gives you the gift of time and mental space set aside to create.
• Gets us back in community with one another.
• Inspires you to work more on your creative pursuits (whatever they are.)
  
• Refreshes you mentally and spiritually.
  
• Provides accountability (because it is so easy to prioritize other things.)
• Helps me to learn and practice as I teach.
• Provides feedback on our in-process drawings and paintings.
  (i.e. something is wrong, but I can't tell what it is : )

While I prefer to teach from my home studio, the beauty in this is you don’t have to pack up art supplies and can sip whatever you want from the comfort of your own home. 

I've also loved incorporating a class FaceBook group! It made for a simple place to post drawings and get in - process art pics for feedback. It is fun to see other people's process pics because sometimes the best parts of life are happening in the anticipation, in the waiting and in the unexpected things that happen throughout the process.

You can read about the upcoming class start dates, times and pricing here.

I've kept it no secret that I'm Italian and I generally love Italian desserts. It's the lemon and orange zest that hooks me! When my friend, Kate, saw me post about a cannoli cake, she said she wanted to try the recipe. Knowing that Kate's a great baker, I was all for her baking it. Truth be told, I'm too much of an experimentalist to follow a recipe. Turns out, Kate experiments too, but she knows what parts not to mess with and how to make her well-thought-out changes. I'm more of the type who thinks, "I like eggs, why not add more?" I know, baking is all science. I got my only D in high school chemistry.

It was so delicious! Moist and fluffy, with hints of orange. I think it tasted way better then a cannoli! We truly enjoyed the cake and the company!

I'm looking forward to the joy of getting back to being able to do these things!

Needless to say, it took a lot longer for me to complete my end of the deal, but that time has finally come! Since I've been teaching perspective to my online watercolor class, and because it was time for our still-life class to paint food, I decided to paint Kate's cannoli cake as our subject.

We started by sketching the cake plate in perspective and first drawing a cube. Perspective tends to trip people up, so we dove into it to get it mastered. We then created ellipses within the cube for our cake stand and layered cake.  Since everyone knows that delicious cake needs coffee, milk or hot tea to wash it down, I included a beverage in this still-life as well. Understanding perspective takes a lot of the discomfort out of trying to draw scenes with multiple or complicated shapes.

I used liquid mask to preserve some whites around the rim of the cup, highlights in the tea and the tea bag string.

I decided on my background colors and enjoyed layering them. I let the colors intermingle.

The chocolate chips are so much fun to paint! I have a little tutorial image on how to paint them on an older blog post here.

Here is the final painting above. I'm giving this original to Kate to commemorate our fun day and to thank her for sharing her gift with us. Pretty soon, I'll be posting a special page on my website with my original watercolor paintings for sale. Many are 11X14", 8x10" and 16X20", so if you've got a wall that needs something special on it, keep an eye out for this new place to shop!
Note: the prints will remain on my Etsy page.

Hope this post inspires you to bake something yummy. In case you are interested in trying it for yourself, here is a similar recipe to the one that chef Kate used. Her special modifications were to use plenty of navel orange zest, a "cinnamon plus" seasoning blend and buying the best, high quality Mascarpone cheese you can find. Enjoy!

If you're considering getting an illustrated custom family recipe of your own, have a look at some of these examples and get in touch with me.

Let me know in the comments or on social media, what kind of cakes you like to bake best.