Potions II

The original painting is for sale.

This painting is along the same lines as the other painting of bottles from a few weeks ago.

I like the design of glass bottles, new and old. These are new bottles that are designed to look like vintage bottles.



The glass is wavy and I like the distortion that it creates. Those wavy patterns were the most interesting part to paint.

It occurred to me while I was working on this painting, that glass bottles are becoming more of a rarity.

When I was a kid, many different food products came in glass bottles. I recently saw a clip of a TV show from the 1980’s that included a shot of the inside of a refrigerator.

Inside was a large glass bottle of applesauce. Most food products are now packaged in plastic containers.

I'm sure plastic bottles are cheaper to manufacture than glass bottles. There are other benefits too. They’re lighter and they won’t shatter if you drop them.

Unfortunately, plastic bottles don’t have the charm of a real glass bottle. I doubt if anybody will be collecting plastic bottles in the same way people collect glass bottles.

Potions #2
8”x10”
Acrylic on canvas board
Chris Breier © 2020

In the first painting of these bottles, I painted the colors as they were.

I thought I would try something different this time and so I used a limited palette that consisted of Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White.

In some ways, a limited palette makes things easier because there are only 3 colors to choose from.

On the other hand, it kind of makes it more difficult because you have to create enough interest and variations with a limited range of colors.

Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna happen to be mixing complements which means they will create a neutral black when you mix them in the right proportion.

I used this mixture to paint the darkest areas, and I added Titanium White to make the neutral grays for the background.

Also, I decided not to use pure white in the painting. Instead, I mixed Burnt Sienna with Titanium White to make a light brown color and used that as my white. This gives the painting an overall warmth that I like.

For some contrast, I painted the liquid in the bottle Ultramarine Blue.

So, what do you think? Should I continue with this series of bottle paintings?