Asparagus by Adrian Coorte (active 1683-1707).
Sometimes still life painters concentrated on a particular item in order to give it their complete attention and immerse themselves in rendering it as close to the real thing as possible.
Raisin Bread
Still Life with Strawberries, no date by Levi Prentice (Amerian 1851-1935), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
Prentice is known for painting still lifes, often with fruit. He worked as a carpenter and an art teacher.
Rembrandt, the Tulips Not the Artist
Flower Still Life, 1669 by Maria Oosterwijck.
Dutch Still Life painting has remained a popular genre since it reached it's zenith in the 17th century. The beautiful colors and arrangements continue to attract and amaze people with their realism.
Close Scrutiny
Still Life by Giorgio Morandi, 1946.
Throughout his career Morandi studied and painted still lifes of bottles in pale tones. His idea was to portray the pure simple beauty of the objects in pale natural light.
Kitchen Still Life
Soliloquy by William H. Bailey.
The first time I saw one of William Bailey's still life paintings I instantly fell in love with the combination of starkness and the items he featured.
Speckled Shells
Still Life (date unknown) by Balthasar van der Ast (c.1593-1656).
The Dutch still life painters concentrated on getting their work to look as close to the real thing as they possibly could. Their backgrounds are often dark and plain in order to feature the objects they are painting.
God is in the Details
Gone by Isabella Kirkland, 2004.
Influenced by the exacting reality of the Dutch Still-life, artist Isabella Kirkland studies the plants and animals she depicts in her detailed artwork. In Gone, she shows us species lost to man's expansion through colonization by both hunting and our tendency toward being oblivious to everything but ourselves.