Apple Edge

Apple Edge

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW $50

     How best to make an apple interesting? Once again, I tried placing it on the very edge, letting the shadow drift over and off. I am hoping for some tension that will add drama to the still life.

     I want my little fruit paintings to be somewhat poetic, not telling everything, but more like a haiku than Paradise Lost. I enjoy finding the colors that make up the white of the apple insides and the range of reds on the outside, and then paying meticulous attention to that seed.

Pears Yellow, Green, Red

Pears

12x16"

Oil

$384

DPW $288

     These pears are starting to log on the mileage. They just turned out to be the right size and color, with leaves. I will probably paint them again before they are lunch.

     I like the way the red is in the green and the green is in the yellow and the yellow is in the red, etc., etc. I did not contrive the fallen leaf. It really did fall from the pear, so I just nudged it a bit into the picture.

     

     

Begonias

Red and Yellow Begonias

8x10"

Oil

$160

DPW $120

     As I have often said, flowers and landscapes are not my best subjects. Yet here I am again giving it another try. So stubborn.

    "Paint the color and value, not the flower." In the first effort, the yellow flower was more interesting than the red one. Stepping back I could tell it was because of two important things: first, the yellow-white paint was fresh, hardly worked or blended at all while the red one was overworked, flat; next, the yellow-white one had shadow because of the light source while the red one was flooded with light rendering it flat to begin with.

     In the second effort, I expanded the shadow around the red one, hoping to give that light source even more presence and hoping for the fresh interest I originally saw in the pale petals.

     I won't even begin to discuss painting the pistils and stamens in the flower centers.