When is it finished?

Canning

This was started almost a year ago. It's gone through quite a few incarnations. For a long time there was an additional jar (empty), more tomatoes, no onion, no bell pepper, all sorts of decisions and second guesses. The shape of the enamel ware bowl kept changing too. After the still life set up was gone, the angle never looked right. The garlic in the jar was glowingly white, but it always seemed too bright until I dulled it, then it looked wrong that way too. I learned a lot on this one. Mostly patience and practice. Now I have either finished it or given up on it.
 I welcome suggestions or comments, but I might not make any changes in this one. It's been through so much already.  This goes in to the group I call Kitchen Pictures. They are Still Life's, but of a kind that would work well in a kitchen or casual dinning room.
It's time to probably do something more formal again. Right now landscapes are getting most of the painting time.
The weather is not being cooperative, but there are some regularly meeting plein air groups in the area with which it will be great to work with again. I use oils so the paint doesn't dry out while I'm working  outside.

When to go vivid (and all that entails) and when to be subtle?

In a painting group one of the other artists had set up this grouping to work on an impressionist piece. I just loved the items, their textures, warm and subtle colors. I asked his permission to take a couple of pictures so I could try it, and it was given.

This is my 8X10 acrylic result. The other artist did some amazing things with brighter colors, more impressionist shapes, and in oils. It was fascinating to see how differently things can be seen.

Next it would be good to explore a somewhat wilder version, more like an art instructor would like. For some reason it's good for me to try realistic first, to get familiar with the shapes, colors and textures, "internalize" them maybe? Whatever, it gets my hands familiar with the shapes, my eyes familiar with the colors etc. Then it seems easier to loosen up and try an impressionist version. Or, then again, maybe I need to fuss over the realistic version until I'm satisfied, or fed up, then my imagination starts really kicking in to liven things up! This second version will be with oils, easier to keep playing with it more.

Here is another project of a completely different kind. This is the unfinished version. It's further along now, the holes have been filled in. Have I said all this before?
Anyway, this is a result of working with the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco last December. I went in 1830's dress (women of a certain age are free to wear styles from their youth). During that period the huge mutton leg sleeve was very popular (see the original Dr Doolittle opening scenes with the Dr's sister) and a special cape collar called a pelerine was also very popular. They were often of very fine stuff like lawn or batiste with embroidery, or fine lace. I had made one of some machine made lace that looks really good, but I'd always wanted to try to make a lace one from scratch, since they have a very distinctive shape. I had a bit of a search to come up with a motif that I could adapt to the shape, but the biggest thing turned out to be finding the thread! Who knew how much it would take! I'm using a fine thread (#30) in white, but there are a lot a whites out there. It took the better part of a month to find more of the exact same white. And YES, you can tell if it's not the same white. At last I was able to obtain enough to finish. On the pattern, I'm winging it so right now I'm in the hard part of the decision process, the final shaping and finishing details.
Gotta go, I'm off to my painting group now!

Homework

Here are some works in progress. The yellow vase with orchids is an Acrylic (9X11). I used a mossy stick I found while painting plein air last week, the onion has been painted before but now it's sprouted! I can't seem to get the shadow of the onion on the vase quite right, and I don't know if I can get it set up the same again. Always take a picture!
The floral is having background problems, among others. It's a watercolor, about 8X11, and was going to have a watering can in it, but the green flooded the area too much. Hmmm.

Last is a little 3.5X5.5 still life watercolor. I think the composition is too "groupy. The dish set is one from our childhood called "Brown Eyed Susan" and the vase is a cloisonne we brought back from Japan. You'll probably be seeing more of these items.