Ball Pein Hammer

I’ve sure got my fair share of tools, neatly organized in the basement of course. At some point it occurred to me that creating still life paintings of antique hand tools might be something worth pursuing. I hung this old, beat up hammer on a wall in my studio space and began the painting like I start all paintings… I created a pencil sketch of the subject and the quickly blocked in basic colors with oil washes. Below you can see what the painting looked like after my first session…

After painting for a few days for a couple hours at a time I finished the hammer painting. While some might even consider this painting to be in the Trompe L’oeil tradition I really enjoyed painting this subject and will definitely try some other tools.

I am proud to say that this painting hung in the New Britain Museum of American Art for several weeks during their juried member’s art show.