Friday, November 6, 2009

Gourd

"Coming and Going" or "Hello Good-Bye" were both titles considered for this painting. The gourd reminds of a wingless bird, maybe saying, "You talking to ME?"
It just about drove me out of my gourd, so to speak :-), trying to paint all these odd shapes, bumps, stripes and reflected lights. I usually do these small paintings in one sitting but this one took two.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

White Pumpkin

The pumpkin: the October-November Cross-Over Fruit.
The thing I liked about this scene was the ribbon of shadow across the top of the pumpkin and the ribbon of light on the table behind it.
I painted the pomegranate and the pumpkin for an on-line challenge, calling artists to enter paintings done entirely during the month of October. My plan was to enter a plein air work of changing leaves and a still life made up of Autumn Harvest but when October started running out, I hurried and did these two small works using my still life props.
The pomegranate is 5x7, the pumpkin is 6x6 and was selected for the first 6-Inch Squared show at the Randy Higbee Gallery in California.

Monday, November 2, 2009

October Pom

To paint this pomegranate, I set it on a box and put the box on a table so that it was nearly eye-level. I rigged a backdrop using a cigar box and a pashmina, then I tacked a black fan to the right side of the box to block all ambient light. Lastly, I turned on a nice, bright light and moved it around until I was happy with the play. The thing that I liked was the way the top was peeling down toward me, casting a shadow barely caught.