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.