Still life by Michael Moore

I don't know if you're using the right technique or not, but I wouldn't give a damn' about that if I'd produced a painting like this: it's magical. The technique which one would probably employ ideally would be to delineate your objects loosely, on a dark background, and add thick paint to describe the forms (the alternative would be to build them up very slowly and carefully, with much glazing: or to combine the two). But as you've got an excellent result, whatever technique you employed was the right one.

Very atmospheric.

It's superb Michael, hats off to you.

Unusual for you Michael, but an excellent result.

Thankyou so much for the comments and especially yours Robert which is extremely encouraging.

I began by painting the background that dark colour then without waiting for it to dry started painting the objects as I saw them with the colours they were. Whether or not this is the correct way to go about it I'm not sure but it works well for me. I do know that some artists begin with a grayish underpainting. A grissaile. I didn't bother with it having worked from grissailes before and the results being not so good. I'm still inexperienced with the correct methods and I intend to do some study.

This is brilliant Michael. Stunning!

Thankyou Spencer.

Absolutely beautiful Michael, the way you have used minimal lighting with a dark background shows the reflections on the objects to great effect.

Thankyou Lynn. I appreciate it.