my fruits and veggies

"pineapple" 8"x12" pastel on toned Uart 500

I have been having fun painting fruits and veggies! I was looking for other subject matter to paint when I saw posts on FB of Steph Clark. She was doing these beautiful fruit and veggie paintings that really inspired me! So I headed over to Whole Foods and what a feast for the eyes! For some of the paintings I worked with the reference photo and some I set up still lifes. It's always good to work from the real thing (aka plein air) where you see the true color. 

Today's pineapple I used a reference photo, I wanted the painting to be fun and easy. Yesterdays painting was far from easy!

"3 plums" 8"x 8" pastel on toned Uart 500.

My first attempt as this was frustrating ! I worked from life with a strong light. I wanted to get the colors right….. the painting fast turned to mud and I ended up washing off the Uart paper ( because I hate wasting it) and started again……. more mud!  I tossed the paper and started again. I was determined not to give up and think the final painting shows my determination.

"golden beets too" 10"x14" pastel on Uart 500

Another one where I worked from life. The color had to be right and this was fun to paint. I love the purple and orange.

"one potato, two potato, three" 5"x7" pastel on Uart 500

Ah,  brown potatoes, but that is not what I saw.

"asparagus" 9'x12" pastel on Uart 500

This one was from a reference photo and I really just had fun painting it.

"garlic" 8"x10" pastel on Uart 500

This was another one of those frustrating paintings, I couldn't get the color right and there was mud! I washed the Uart paper off in the sink, blocked and dried it. The shadow that was left was perfect for the underpainting and it just came together.

"orange" 8"x10" pastel on Uart 500

 This was my first painting in the series. I worked from life and pulled it together on my first try. I don't think it was my best painting in the series but I was off to a start and having fun painting.  These were all about the color……something is starting to click in my head with color and value.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed painting them.

Thinking of those summer greens

"marsh side at Plum Island" 14"x14" on Uart 500

Februrary is cold. This time of the year I start thinking about being in a warmer climate! For today's painting I decided to revisit  a photo that I have painted before.

5"x7" pastel on moonstone Canson Mi-Teintes

It was July and the greens in the marsh were really beautiful.  I'm trying to paint larger and decided to do this one in a square 14"x14"format.  I started with a drawing in my sketch book and reworked the composition to make the scene work.

sketch book drawing

I'm having fun with Inktense water soluble blocks and chose a nice violet to tone the paper. I used alcohol instead of water to wash it in for faster drying time.

my reference photo, toned paper and sketch. 

With all the green in the photo , I knew I needed to break it up and add other color to make it work. Violet is always nice with green, well for me , at least. So I used a blue/violet Nupastel and drew in the darks and then went over it with a brush and alcohol in a painterly way.

Nupastel and alcohol wash.

I ended up working on this one for 2 days. Our Siberian Husky had emergency surgery and  I have been spending a lot of time taking care of him. I worked on the painting when I could. I am so focused when I paint that it was actually a relief for me from my worries of our Kobi. 

Here is a little detail when I stopped.

I was able to finish it up today, but I had to tell myself to "STOP". With all the grasses and such in the scene I was headed to overworking the painting. It's hard sometimes to know when the painting is finished. At this point I am letting it sit and will put it aside and move forward to another painting.