A Pair of Pears

Spent some time trying to paint a couple of red pears. In the first painting I set up the pears so I was looking down at them, and arranged them at an angle. I had a very difficult time getting the pears to look dimensional. Colors were tougher than I thought also! Painting realistic looking fruit is turning out to be more difficult than you might expect. For the second painting, I decided to try a more classical still-life type of arrangement, with a very dark background. I set the pears up side-by-side so there was slight overlap, with one of the pears throwing a shadow onto the other. I also consciously played around with lost edges, allowing (or trying to allow) the darker areas of the pears to blend into the background. Not sure how well that comes across in the jpeg, but it worked pretty well and I do like the actual painting.

Both are 5x7 oil on canvas panel.

Cipollinis

I found these neat looking onions in the grocery store...they're shaped like little spinning tops. Apparently called cipollinis. In any case, they were a lot of fun to paint...lots of subtle coloration, reflections, etc. Both are painted on 4x6 Sourcetek linen panels that I am experimenting with. For the first painting, I placed the onion on a sheet of aluminum foil, which provides partial reflections. For the second painting, I placed the onions on a piece of glass with something dark underneath, to enhance the reflections.

















I've really found these little studies to be challenging but also surprisingly fun to do, and I plan on doing a lot more of them during the winter. I originally became inspired to do these small paintings after seeing the work of Duane Keiser, who is generally credited with starting the "painting-a-day" craze. More recently, a friend told me about Carol Marine who has been doing these kinds of paintings for about 3 years. Check out their work if you get the chance.

Early Spring, Burger Park

Catching up on some old paintings...the study here was done sometime in early spring - probably March (but maybe April) - at Burger Park in Greece. The trees were just starting to show their color - not green, but the subtle reds and yellows that appear as the buds swell. It is a beautiful time of year. I remember that I trudged out into the fields and set up a long way from the car...it was fairly warm for the time of year. However, about halfway through the painting the wind switched to the north and the cold air over Lake Ontario swept in. Fortunately I had an extra sweatshirt!

This is oil on canvas, 8x10. I like the way it turned out, but the sky needs a little refinement and the water looks too dark to me. What do you think?

Some apples...and an update

Well, I'm finally getting around to updating the blog. This has been a hectic year to say the least. Since my last post, I spent about a month on Long Island, fixing up my parents' house for sale. We got really lucky, the house sold quickly and at a good price. But it did take a lot of time, several trips back and forth. All of that is done now, and I have been doing some painting - but there is so much other stuff that has piled up.

Anyway, these studies of apples were completed several months ago. All three paintings are of the same scene...I got very frustrated with the first one (the paint wasn't behaving), which is 5x7 oil on board. So I got out a smaller panel (4x5) and painted it again. Had better luck, so I gave it another try at 5x7...and I do like the way the third one finally turned out. I have quite a few more paintings that I will be posting in the near future, so check back often!