What is it with painting Pears?

A question that was asked of me by a student I have been working with. I have done MORE continuous line drawings with more pears, being as they are currently in season. And those drawings turn me to my easel to paint them. I suggested to him that he try drawing pears to see why so many artists like to paint pears to see where it leads him. I have my own theories about why I am drawn to pears.

I am not going to include the line drawings in this post, just a progression as I painted over an old plein air landscape. You can see I set the pears up right at eye level on my easel. Nothing fancy at all. In fact, using the 2x4 is rather tippy and I had to be careful the painting and 2x4 didn't end up on my palette! But then, why not add a little adventure to the whole thing? Since I used a red background before I decided to use a piece of blue mat board this time.

Set up with 6x8 old painting

blocking in the pears with a lime green

Blocking in with blue background and brick

Bosc Pears- further blocking in

Bosc Pears, next to set up

Bosc Pears, Still looking for a Title, 6x8, oil

I had thought to name this little study "the Conversation." Yet it almost looks like the Pear on the left is listening closely while the pear on the right is maybe a bit forward in what it has to say. The stems are intimating a heart shape now that I look at it differently. A title is not coming to me. Any help with a title would be greatly appreciated. I have used "Tete a Tete" before.

These fun studio studies keep me from getting too serious in my studio works since I don't get outside and paint as much as I used to. I do think it is important to paint from life whatever that  looks like. These don't take much of a time commitment as I do try to keep moving and not think too hard about it. Just observe.

Randy Higbee Gallery online 6x6 show

The Longview, 6x6, oil

I took the reference photo for this on the Gulf side of Florida. That is where my favorite beaches are. I was captured by this boy in his lime green garb watching the paddle boarder. It felt like he was thinking "I could do that!" That can do attitude, along with the colors is what motivated this little gem. To access this and to see the show, https://onlinegalleryshows.com/collections/2nd-annual-6-squared-online-exhibition-and-sale/artist-victoria-ekelund

SoCal Sunset, 6x6, oil

This scene was from a restaurant we went to for my sister's birthday. Where it is specifically, I can't remember. It was up the coast from Ventura is the best I can come up with. I liked this silhouette against the sun setting as we ate.

 

Eggplants as inspiration

 These eggplants were the last I harvested from my garden before the temperatures dropped. I decided to memorialize them as I wasn't sure I would be able to eat them all. I set them on my dining room table being to lazy to go up to my studio as well as wanting a different venue.

#1

Here they are in front of my seat at the dining room table

#2

Then I went to the chair across the table and did the reverse view. I must be easy to please as I had so much fun doing these.

#3

Deciding I did not want to move the set up, I left it up and did this painting at the table. I did not have any clean 9x12 panels so I grabbed a panel with an old painting on it that was not worth saving. I like painting over old paintings anyway. This was painted in less than an hour. 

#4

Of course, I then had to do the other side too! The painting below is the one underneath #4. It had been varnished, which tends to absorb the paint on top of it which you can see in the top of the new painting. The whitish effect from the varnish. I liked the red 'swirls' coming through from below. These paintings are done just for the pure joy I get from doing them to see the effects. I could have spent more time totally obliterating the painting beneath. This was done in less than an hour too.

These acorn squash and peppers were also the last harvest from the garden but way back in the day. I want to say 20 years ago.

The Pears have it

Last week a bag of little red pears were on a manager's special of $.97 for 3 pounds! How could I pass that up? The first thing I did with them was to do some continuous line drawings. I started doing continuous line drawings because it is a good reminder to look at what you are drawing not at what you are doing so much on the paper. I had done some eggplants and clementines the week or so before and had so much fun doing them, so I am trying to do some every day or so. 

Here are the pear sketches. As with the eggplant, I ended up doing a painting. Each of these sketches takes about 5 minutes or so. No more than 10. So really no excuse not to do something every day.

#1

I don't always add the shading but it helped to keep my pencil on the paper to do so with this set up.

#2

I thought I had done more than one from this perspective, but I only have one. I know I thought about it. It gets the creative juices flowing to play around with the set up.

#3

I did lift my pencil to do the solo pear but otherwise each section was done without. I dumped these out on the table to see what it would look like.

#4

The drawings lead to this little 6x6 painting. Which was great fun to paint.

#6

Then I sliced them all up and dried them~ dried pears are the best and still so beautiful.

True Confessions

I started this post two months ago-then promptly forgot about it.

Many of you may not remember the publication from back in the day and truthfully, I don't know much about it. The title sure stuck in my brain, however. It is a humbling experience to review ones work and find some of it, surprising in its lack of what one knows as a foundational principle.

This is one that first struck me as decidedly 'off' and yet at the time of its execution I thought I had done such a good representation. Which I had done. The thing was, I ignored what I knew and copied the image with its distortions as if it were true to life. One thing I had forgotten, or neglected to observe, and it is a big thing, is how the phone camera distorts perspective. What's wrong with this picture?

It is that all of the vertical lines should be parallel and straight up and down. The difference in color is from the devices used. The remake is with my iPhone. I think the image above was with my digital camera. A stark contrast...surprising or not, the iPhone image is more true to the painting. It did not take much to straighten the window edges out.

View from Above, 9x12, oil

There will be more revised paintings coming as I pulled a number of them out to revisit. I am so out of the habit of writing and posting that I am way behind. Thankfully, there weren't very many with the perspective lines out of whack. 

This painting is from my last trip to Italy. It reminded me of myself as a child living in France. Our house had three stories and I often sat in the window overlooking a street through our city that was a thoroughfare. I ticked off on the windowsill how many cars with British plates on their way to or from Paris.

2022 Art on the Green - mark your calendars!

 

Come on down! I will be participating in this years Art on the Green, which is in its 3rd year.

A Weekend of Art in Greenwood Village

 Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18

10 AM-5 PM 

Curtis Center for the Arts

Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly

 

Great Spangled Fritillary, 10x10, oil on panel available

 

My apologies to anyone who has clicked on this post to find it empty! It appears I did something to delete the original post of which I still have no clue as to what that might have been.

This image came from a hike I did last summer up near Vail, CO. I did not know the name of this butterfly so had to do some research. It was taken with my phone camera and I used 'portrait' to get the image up close and the background blurred.

In drafting this painting I did a thorough drawing of the butterfly so as to get a feel for the pattern on the wings before diving in to paint. The flower petals were drawn in as well as I felt I could get the flow of the petals better if I drew them in first. I used a red colored pencil which is still in evidence. I am not known for soft edges so the background blur was fun to play around with.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After: Waiting on new window-back to original size. plastic for now

This week's painting is interior. I had my main floor bathroom remodeled during the month of July -I live in a house built in 1890 or thereabouts, so no ensuite bathrooms in this ole gal-and to save $1000 I took on the painting of said bathroom with assistance from my daughter and son-in-law. Then, since the basement is not finished according to modern standards, there was quite a bit of dirt, dust and other detritus that fell through the old floorboards during the tear down and rebuild onto the basement floor. Since the floor and surrounding area had to be cleaned anyway, it seemed a good time to paint the old wall and floor, at least in that section. I am not a glutton for punishment, after all! Between that, having a friend come for a long weekend along with the two of us driving back and forth to a Kaiserslautern High School reunion, it has been a busy time. Then the bathtub refinish was the last item and happened Monday. That was less than stellar so now the same kid is coming back today to try and buff out the many imperfections in the new finish. When he masked off the bathroom - all sparkling new - his tape ripped off the paint in several areas so I need to go back and touch that up once he is gone today. Not sure if he will tape it off again, so I am not willing to do it any more than necessary. 

Before: ceiling above shower raised back to be level with the rest of the room; toilet, medicine cabinet, light and sink replaced.

Here is the painted floor in the basement-nothing glamorous but looks fresh :

Remake - Sausalito Houseboat

Original with a few adjustments already begun

Almost finished, but not quite, 20x16

This is a remake of an old one I did when in class over 10 years ago. It is quite ugly and every time I came across it I wondered why I didn’t just throw it away. It is of a houseboat in Sausalito CA. Richard and I had stopped there on our way back from San Fransisco to his parents house. It isn’t a pretty boat to begin with, but I sure didn’t improve it any! I could not find where I had ever taken a photo of it that is how much I disliked this painting.

So as you can see, the top one is the ‘original’ from class, when we were studying textures. Which I did very well as far as that goes. But it was so dark. I had already decided to take out the wooden structure on the left and you can see my corrected drawing, in pink, as to the top of the boat so there would be more sky and better proportions. The siding should be white but it looked so gray and dingy. So will it ever be a great painting? No. But it gives me a feeling of satisfaction to fix something like this. I still have to finish the big window and put the bike back in a few more finishing touches, but you can see the difference, which is all I wanted for today. Side note: I wrote this almost two weeks ago and then was distracted by a bathroom remodel so never posted. Here is the painting today as I did get some work done on it between painting walls and trim.

I used the side of an old credit card to get the illusion of rough wood with peeling paint. It is fun to do, although would not work for most of what I paint, it works well for this. 

Sausalito Houseboat, 16x20, oil on panel, available

Here is the 'finished' painting, at least for now. From the last photo, I dulled down the wooden screen in the window, finished the plant, redid the reflection and finished the bike. 

Door series

Two weeks ago

A month ago

Since this is how I sent what I was working on to my aunt in a letter, (yes, I still write letters, and she is 96) this is how I am presenting them here as there is no other means now to show the progression. In the bottom image is the first image I sent her on where I was at that time, about a month or so ago. Mostly blocked in and taking shape if not yet pushed to finished. The first painting in the bottom image going from left to right, Georgetown CO, Morrison CO, the green door is from Bavaria, the blue door is Orleans FR from a photo I took in B&W back in the early 70's, and the old metal chair is in front of my garage, and the only one painted plein air.

The top image has most of them nearing completion although since I took this photo a few weeks ago, Georgetown hadn't made much progress, but now is almost done. I have also worked more on the Bavarian Green door. I will post the updated grouping once I finish Georgetown. 

I have been working on some larger paintings and I started to do these 9x12's as a way to break up the monotony I sometimes get into while working on large (30x40) for me paintings. I hardly paint this small anymore unless doing studies from life. It has been fun, and I have a few more in mind to continue and riff on this theme. I showed them to some friends of mine recently and I was surprised that they both liked the same painting the most, the one I expected the least attention from. Can you guess which one it is?

Wow! How time flies...I had not realized I had been gone so long. It has been a struggle for me to write as I feel that with so much information pouring in from everywhere, who needs one small artist's thoughts on any given topic, even on art. However, I made a decision to attempt a come back for my sake and hopefully yours as well. 

Here is a painting I finished up this spring. It was started a year ago but I could not seem to work on it much until finally it called me back to the easel to getter done.

Just an Illusion, 30x24, oil on panel SOLD

Here is the block in almost finished. I wanted to see if I could get the warm yellow transitioning to cool shadows in the white house. I think that is what initially stumped me for this was about where this painting sat for so long. I would venture into the tree on the side and the foreground and even into the reflections in the windows, but not that daunting white clapboard. Once I got started on it though, I ran with it and gotter done. This painting was submitted to the Framed Image show, on blues and greens, and it sold in the first week the show was up. That is very gratifying.

I had done a poor sketch of the doorway to capture the warmth of the light even in shadow at the time I took the photo reference for this painting. I had also done another study on the back of the property to get a grasp of the feeling I wanted to remember of the whole. My on-site sketches are just that - to instill a memory of what caught my attention. I don't usually show these sketches but here we go...I did this first as this is what I came upon as I was walking around during the Georgetown Plein Air event. (of which I did not participate) I try to do these very quickly and think about the shapes. Essentially, a block in. But as you can see, the shadow side had a warmth to it that I did not want to forget.

Then the quick grab some basic info before meeting friends for lunch:

I bought this linen oil pad for just his purpose and I find it is working out well for me since I really don't plan on doing a completed painting most of the time. It does get awkward so I added a binder clip after this trying day to hold the pad pages from flapping in the breeze as I try to paint.

This years Georgetown Plein Air is the end of this month, so I am going to plan on going up to paint again with a few friends. Seeing what catches other artists eyes if always fun to observe and inspire.

Plumeria

Plumeria, 12x24, oil on linen,  available

While staying at an AirBnB on one of the keys off of Sarasota, Florida, this lovely Plumeria greeted us at  the bottom of the stairs from our apartment. I am intrigued by how organic life is and the patterns created. The greenery felt like it was in motion to a tune I couldn't quite hear. I so enjoyed painting this for that reason. It made my heart sing as I worked. The flowers were like a second, softer melody. More support than out front. As I write this, someone playing the piano came to mind and how one hand can play one part while the other hand doesn't something different yet supports the other. I always look for patterns while composing a painting, but never before had one produce music!

New Little Studies - winter fruit

It has been too long since I have paid much attention to writing a blog post. I am not one for making excuses so I won't start now. I do have a possible explanation, however I don't think anyone is really interested in that!

Suffice it to say, I am here, it is a new year, and I hope to be back at my easel more than I have been this past year plus. Everything seems to be taking longer as I have worked on a number of paintings all year and can't seem to make much progress as in getting them done. I was able to get some small studies done over the holidays and it really was a struggle at the start to compose from life. It started with fruit my sister had thoughtfully brought with her from her yard in southern California. Who knew that is all it took to get me motivated? I am going to try and remember the order I painted these, but don't hold me to it.

Lime Persimmons, 6x9, oil on canvas, available

My sister had brought with her limes, lemons, and persimmons. I picked this lime as it still had a leaf attached. I believe I painted this first as the limes were going to someone else. As I painted the leaves visibly dried before my eyes. I tried to do them in a limited time frame although I did not set a timer as I would normally do when going for a quick sketch. There is an under painting showing through as I paint over old paintings. I don't paint this small normally anymore, but the size is perfect for doing these exercises.

Persimmon Pair, 6x6, oil on panel, available

Still trying to get that leaf in before it broke off, I did another little painting of a couple of persimmons. Two is what worked for the square format. I still used the same blue mat board and red rice paper to offset the orange. 

Stacked, 9x6, oil on panel, available

I wanted to see if I could stack the persimmons as there enough to pick from to find what might work. Who would have thought a smaller one would be on the bottom with the largest in the middle, but that is what worked. No toothpicks or other assistance needed. Just wanting to have fun as I got to know persimmons as a subject. 

These were all painted over old paintings. I don't usually do well with allowing the layers to come through but this time I did as I worked quickly trying not to think about anything much. 

Next my sister had brought home some pears to put in the pear walnut salad we do for Christmas Eve dinner so I had a new subject to paint, and I have always enjoyed painting pears.

Pearishable, 6x9, oil on linen

The Bartlett's refused to stand on their own, so reclining it was to be. I propped the one on top of the other for visual interest and to get a circular composition going. I changed to a purple paper and the wood from the table for this one. This was my sister's favorite of those I did while she was here, so it went home with her. It was a gray day out and so the light is more subdued in this one.

Pear Trio, 6x8, oil, available

One more before the pears became salad for our consumption. The Bartlett's still refused to stand up. A stubborn pair. Different lighting on this one which brightens up the study and adds reflected light onto the paper. This is the only one of this group that was done a clean canvas. Very different feel.

There are two more but I forgot that I hadn't taken their photo yet. So, another post to come to follow up to this sojourn at my easel to have a bit of fun.