Fruit Trio (10"x7")

I think this may take a better photo tomorrow in the daylight but I wanted to post this tonight. I miss the long daylight hours we have had over the summer. I hadn't realized how much I was depending on it to get decent lighting for these photos.

I've been feeling a bit stuck with painting for the last few days. I have lots of ideas but I'm having a hard time deciding what to paint NOW... Lots of the ideas seem like I'm not quite ready for them. Fruit on the other hand... well, I just love painting it. The red pear turned out to be quite a challenge today.

I started this painting off by doing a gamboge wash from left to right over all three pieces of fruit but covering only part of the centre of the red pear. Then, while that was still wet I rounded out the rest of the left pear with reds, quin magenta and ultramarine blue. Then I dropped ultramarine blue and some azo yellow into to the green pear... as that dried a bit I darkened the top of the banana with a wash varying colors from blue to red in the centre and then green gold toward the right side. As the paint mingled on the paper I lifted out highlights on the pears... softening the edges of the white highlight on the green pear. then a few spots on the banana and the green pear needed a few burnt sienna speckles. After I was satisfied with the fruit, I washed in the shadows with ultramarine blue, violet, and some cobalt... with just a touch of quin gold... it was fun watching things flow as it dried. At the end I added some darks on the stems of the fruit and the side and tip of the banana.

I definitely didn't stick with my original color scheme but I kind of like the result... Enjoy!