"Provenance" (14x11 oil on panel) painting process

Greetings Steemians and Artists,

Painting a still life such as this is feels like coming home. Back to basics. I've said it before, but I will never tire of painting still life. Within simple objects there is always new territory to explore and new heights to achieve.

detail

The setup:

It always comes back to oranges, doesn't it? My objective for this composition is to make the center orange the primary focus, with the cup as a close supporting second.

Here is the initial block-in in umber with a brush:

Straight into knife work. I started on the focal orange first:

Next stage:

For a painting like this, I keep the studio very dark to minimize unnecessary reflections in my objects. And I wear black (which may seem silly, but it makes a difference):

Next stage:

Next stage:

Refining:

And the finished painting, "Provenance" (14x11 oil on panel):

High res image link can be found here.

Thanks for reading! -David

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