How to paint shiny objects

Hang on Studio Wall

Equipment

Jackson’s or Belle Arte panel

Filbert brushes

Oil paints

Colours

Cadmium yellow

Cadmium red

Alizarin crimson

Ultramarine blue

Raw umber

Alkyd fast-drying white

How to depict shiny objects in still life painting

'While I enjoy painting other subjects, 2020 was a particularly good one for still lifes,' says Lotta Camilla Teale. T'hey have provided months of entertainment.

'Crude as it may be, I find reflections on silver and ceramics particularly enjoyable to paint. Silver is less a colour than a reflection of all the colours in the room and thus changes every time, and it has a wonderful way of bringing together the different objects in the still life, as they’re reflected in its surfaces.

'Ceramics often have surprising iridescent colours, which photographs can fail altogether to capture but come out deliciously when painted – see Mustard Pot with Tangerines and Knife, (below).'

Mustard Pot with Tangerines and Knife, oil on canvas board, (30.5x30.5cm)

Composition

I like to include something alive in each painting to keep it fresh – a vegetable or eggs for example – but then the rest can be my usual props in various permutations.

I tend to avoid complicated shiny objects such as silver with lots of facets, or cut glass, both of which can look beautiful in life but can be really hard to paint and are often disappointing: one simple highlight can often achieve more than a multitude.

I will often spend two or three hours setting up a still life, arranging and rearranging, and often completely giving up on the props and starting from scratch.

If the composition isn’t right at the outset the painting will never work, however good the technique – I have wasted many a day only to find the composition was wrong.

I photograph compositions as I go along to work out roughly where I want each element to appear in the painting, cropping them to reflect the size of the board I want to use.

Getting started

I tend to use gesso-covered panels. As a vegetarian I try to avoid oil primer, which tends to be made with animal bones. It’s a shame as I love the texture but it’s a sacrifice I think it’s only right to make (if anyone has any suggestions on good alternatives do let me know!).

I start by mixing and applying a relatively neutral base colour with lots of odourless solvent and wait a couple of minutes before brushing it off with a cloth or paper.

I like to paint loosely, and doing this first means I won’t risk having hard white sections showing through at the end. I then map out the key elements of the drawing using ultramarine and raw umber.

Demonstration: Persimmon with Teapot

This was the set up that worked for me.

Content continues after advertisements

Top Tip

Be prepared to spend as long on composition as painting – it’s equally important.

I used my paint brush to measure distance between key points in the composition, then drew the key elements with ultramarine and raw umber.

Top Tip

Be careful to check where any highlights fall and minimise the use of highlights to focus attention.

The dark areas were mapped out and I began to block in the colours.

For colours that I find tricky, such as the red shadows on the persimmon, I sometimes leave it and move onto other colours, as here.

Top Tip

Always try to keep your colours simple.

I finished blocking in the colours.

Reflections in silver tend to be a bit darker than the original colours and can be warmer if the silver could do with being cleaned.

Whenever I paint, I try to forget the subject matter and just paint the colours I see in front of me, roughly where I see them.

Top Tip

Even the brightest part of a reflection might not be pure white – on silver it will often be golden tinged, and to paint it white may put the painting out of kilter.

It’s particularly important to get highlights right first time, rather than having several attempts, as crispness makes it ‘pop’. If it’s not in the right place, scrape it off and do it again.

Finished painting

Persimmon with Teapot, oil on canvas board, (40x50cm)

For paintings of this size I will often do them over two days, coming back to check and improve on them the second day.

If nothing else, it can sometimes be good to go over the shiny patch with one stroke the next day when the painting has dried to accentuate the highlight, which can have a tendency to get muddy.

This extract is taken from Camilla's article in the April 2021 issue of The Artist.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR COPY

Lotta Camilla Teale has exhibited at the New English Arts Club, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Society of Women Artists, Royal Society of Marine Artists, Royal West of England Academy and the Russell Gallery.

She won both the Royal Talens Award and The Artist exhibition award in the 2020 The Artist Open Competition. To discover more, please visit www.lottateale.com

Sometimes we may include links to online retailers, from which we might receive a commission if you make a purchase. Affiliate links do not influence editorial coverage and will only be used when covering relevant products.