Still life with Oranges, Plums and Garlics

Still life with Oranges, Plums and Garlic, Oil on Canvas, 18" X 24" 

This canvas is slightly larger than those that I can handle comfortably. Henceforth I am planning to paint larger regularly so I dont have to feel intimidated by the occassional commissions I receive :).
I am not exactly happy with the blank forground. NExt time I will try to create a more balanced composition.
Thank you so much for visiting. Comments and critiques please .....

Sunny Morning Soliloquy

Sunny Morning Soliloquy, Oil on Canvas, 20" X 16" 

Its been some time since I posted anything new here. That is because I was busy completing the colour charts as described in Richard Schmid's book Alla Prima II. Each chart just seemed to take forever especially since I did all of them with a pallette knife. It was certainly an exhausting exercise but I feel more confident with colour now. Of course I will have to keep studying them periodically to grasp all the info they offer. I will be posting them in the near future. I noted that some colours result in really surprising mixtures, for e.g. Alizarin Crimson + Viridian give a beautiful purply-violet, Viridian, alizarin and Indian red are very strong colours and they dominate every mixture much more than the other colours even when added in traces, yellow ochre tends to darken every mixture it is added to etc. I am sure there is a lot more to discover. :)

The above painting "Sunny Morning Soliloquy" was done from a photograph I took very near to the place I live. The background was quite busy and I tried to quite it down to make sure it doesnt distract attention from the centre of interest. All comments are most welcome.