I made rubbings of the different surfaces in my picture - walnuts, oranges, sawn wood and earthernware

using the rectangular and circular shapes of the wooden boxes to make a basic pattern.

photos from the British Museum - Egyptian boxes (for burials!) and earthernware pots

pages from my small sketchbook

Earthernware pots seen in the British Museum. I recorded lots of shapes in my sketchbook and took photos

Chapter 5. Transforming with heat and pressure. For some reason I am not a bit fond of this technique!

Chapter 5. transforming with media technical trials.

First pages from my small sketchbook recording different aspects of walnuts . I am off to London tomorrow and will be able to visit "my painting" again with my sketchbook. I would like to look at the frame and the room it is hung in as I have no information on those and cannot get any from my copies of the painting.

These pages are looking at the contruction of different wooden boxes from my souce painting.

The photo above was an attempt to create a still life with a strongly triangular composition which is a feature of many still life paintings, often it seems with the apex of the triangle at the extreme left top of the painting and one angle at the bottom right, giving a long line rising from right to left. The other line of the triangle is usually off the edge of the painting. See Melendez painting above (Bread and Figs)

Wonderful colours using two of the elements of my theme painting. I will start working with this colour scheme for the colour section of the research work.

I first of all gathered lots of images of still life paintings, boxes, jars and fruit onto a notice board. These will gradually find homes in note books as the board is used for drawings, mixed media experiments etc. I am lucky to have my own little room where all this can stay on the wall and have the door shut on it when I am finished for the time being.

Using my original painting and photoshop to alter it.

I have been altering images of fruit taken in the supermarket using photoshop. Some quite interesting results.

Wooden boxes and bottles of olive oil. The modern day equivalent of the boxes and earthernware jars of oil in my Luis Melendez painting.

I am gathering images of still life paintings and information in a notebook. I will continue to add to it as I visit galleries and can collect postcards etc.

Half a pomegranate, which look wonderful but I find a disappointment to eat. In still Life they are symbolic of fertility, wealth and plenty

Charcoal drawings of bottles and boxes

chalk pastel of dragon fruit. I went to the supermarket to look at what fruits were available to us now to use in still life pictures.

seed heads are a very traditional starter for students' still life studies

Fruity, seedy paintings! This one based on magnolia seed pods.

chalk pastel

Mixed drawing media on brown paper

Fruits in a space. Very watery acrylic paints on watercolour paper