Carol Gillott - Paris Breakfast

I came across a french water colour artist by the name Carol Gillott. She has many water colour paintings of coffee, tea and breakfast in general and publishes them on her blog called Paris Breakfast. Gillott often goes to cafes and coffee shops for breakfast and she's always trying different places and does paintings of the food and drink she orders there meaning the paintings vary in design due to different cafe's having different food, drink, tea sets and table decorations.

I love her water colour style for all of these painting as they are not overly detailed and they mostly have a very warm feel to them. The colours and shading are very soft and the strokes of colour are very simple. I love the way she uses composition and how she doesn't always outline her work, defining the source of light by making her shadows go all in one direction. Even though there is no line are and appears to be no definition between the lightest part of the plate and the background in this image the shapes help you mind fill in the gaps with lines automatically.

I like how in this image she added in the coffee beans at the bottom as just painting a simple cup of coffee would be too plain since she hasn't done much for the background. I like the minimal red, white and brown colour scheme and the angle in which she has painted this as you can see more of what's inside the up, usually when a cup is drawn from the side it just looks like it's empty. The logo of the cafe on the top is also a nice touch so people who come across this painting will know the name of the cafe it comes from is they're interested in going there.

I absolutely love how in this one she has placed real objects with the painting, and took a photo of it that way, for a moment it looks like it's all one painting but then you notice some of the objects are real such as the plum and the cake and as well as the logo of the cafe which must've been cut out from a paper bag or something. The colours in this are richer too, in the previous painting the brown seemed muted and dark, and in this they've used a more orange toned brown with a brilliant red and golden yellow.

I love the more nature colours used in this to compliment the browns always used associated with coffee, and how the green and pink of the flowers also match with the icing on the eclairs. All of the contents are placed in a single line diagonally across the paper and the lighting comes from the top left side of the canvas, making the shadows cast to the right.

In this painting I think she has captured the source of light really well, making it look as if the contents are on a window-side table with the light beaming in from behind the objects as it shows lighter around the edges and darker towards the middle. This painting has a very soft and warm feel to it and the colours are very diluted. The over all texture of the painting is quite grainy making the shading under the saucer look diffused.