Half and Half

The difficulty with painting white subjects is to convey the idea of white without being dull or bland. The meat of the apple isn't truly white, but close enough to be tricky. I left a few spots untreated with lemon juice to get an umber tinge in spots. I then cut back in with a mix of white, cad yellow light, and burnt umber. The shadow side of the quartered apple slice has a nice violet created with ultramarine, alizarin, white and a touch of the local color on the lit side. As with my last few paintings, I toned the ground with burnt umber and covered that with a thin mix of ultramarine, white and burnt umber. The use of burnt umber in each part of the painting gives it a cohesiveness. This is 8x6", oil on canvas panel for $80. Please visit my blog and website. Thanks.

Hot in Traffic

Recently I have been working on more neutral backgrounds with some of the ground color showing through. I like the effect I am getting and hope to explore this further. This composition was difficult to develop. It can be tough to get a good arrangement with an even number of objects, but lately I have felt stagnant using only odd numbers in my compositions. This looked like afternoon traffic on an urban road. It is 6x8", oil on canvas panel for $80. Please visit my blog and website. Thanks.

Inner Glow

Until recently the persimmon I have seen at the market have been pale, short, and unattractive. I came upon a beautiful bunch a few days ago and was excited to paint them. This arrangement came quickly and the painting fell into place (just as my last one did). The hardest part was getting the shadow color (cad orange medium with burnt sienna) to have enough opacity. I laid a burnt sienna ground and covered it with a thin mix of raw umber, ultramarine, and white. If you look closely some of that warm ground glows through the light overcoat in a very subtle way. It took me longer to set up the arrangement and my equipment than it did to actually paint it. This is 8x6", oil on canvas panel for $80. Please visit my blog and website. Thanks.

In The Pink

After not painting for about a week and getting off to a mediocre start the day before, I was thrilled when this one just "fell off" my brush. I was anticipating these to be difficult, but every stroke seemed to go in the right place. This one is 6x8", oil on canvas panel for $80. Please visit my blog and website. Thanks.

Peared Off

I have had a very hard time getting painting time the last couple of weeks. Thanksgiving, then both my kids got sick, and now my wife has the "Bug." I am making an effort to get back into the rhythm I had built prior to Thanksgiving. This is my first effort since my hiatus. I like the subtle color of the background (after my intense backgrounds over the last couple of months) but the pears look a little too artificial for my liking. This one is 6x8", oil on canvas panel. Please visit my blog and website. Thanks.