High contrast color, sunlight falling on baskets and bowls, flowers and fruit, or occasionally a bottle of wine – this describes the still life paintings of Chuck Rosenthal. Mr. Rosenthal does paint other subjects, but still life is a favorite and wonderfully done. Many of his beautiful oil paintings hang in galleries, offices and private homes.

There is something about the textures expressed in Mr. Rosenthal’s paintings that makes one feel like one could just touch it and feel the temperature, the roughness or the coolness and smoothness of the objects in his paintings. In “Daffodils and Grapes,” the artist has contrasted the smooth cool grapes with the textured linen tablecloth and the bright wrinkled daffodils with the smooth glass of the vase that contains them.

Another interesting composition that shows such contrasts is “Fruit Harvest,” where a well used basket is next to a cool metal goblet. The goblet alone is an astounding piece of work – the artist used a wide variety of hues from very dark to nearly white to express the metal piece. In the foreground are pears that have fallen out of the basket – one feels if one put his finger on them, they would feel like ripe pears, in contrast to the hard shiny apple in front of them.

The composition of “Fruit Harvest II” leads the eye around the painting from the bright fruit in the foreground to the textured bowl behind, then to the smooth cool bottle of wine and finally to the brocade tablecloth that foretells the rest of the room in which this painting is set. One can imagine brocade drapes and thick carpets and elaborate furniture in the scene. The contrast of the bright fruit and dark background pulls one into the painting.

In “Teapot and Fruit” light barely seeps in through the dark blue background – possibly a thick curtain covers a window there. In any case, it makes a nice contrast to the hand thrown teapot in light hues, and the grapes and apples in the foreground. Perhaps this scene is in a kitchen – the table on which these objects rest is more like a work table, not a dining table.

In “Roses from the Garden” we see a very darkly tinted glass bottle holding three differently colored roses. The background is very dark, almost black, yet the bottle still stands out away from the wall, because of the light falling on it – a very nice touch in this painting. The softly painted pears in front of the bottle lend depth to the painting.

Mr. Rosenthal exhibits a bright and lively style of painting in still life, in contrast to the motionless objects he is painting and the dark rooms where they sit. Certainly the artist has studied paintings of past centuries when still life paintings were so popular. But he brings to this kind of painting a modern touch, his own style.

In addition to all being still life paintings by the same artist, these paintings also have in common that they are on display at Park Place Gallery in Leawood, Kansas. View them at www.theparkplacegallery.com under artist Chuck Rosenthal.

Technorati Tags: art works, art world, color scheme, decorate, decorating, fine art, interior design, oil painting, still life, talent