Still Life with Cups and Ginger Jar

This painting was a bit of a gateway for me. It was winter and there were no obvious contenders for subject matter for an exciting still life. I began to collect different, day-to-day objects from my cupboards, and to play around with them. Each time I arrived at an interesting arrangement I would sketch it within a drawn rectangle the same ratio as the dimensions of my canvas, and see if I could improve on it. After many attempts, I finally arrived at a composition I was pleased with and this was it. This was something I feel I should have been taught years ago at art school, but perhaps arriving there by myself ingrains it more deeply…