Sunday, January 18, 2009

Lemon Halves, 6x6 (in progress)


I cut my lemon in half, and started this painting. I noticed that while painting this, I really like the way the surface looks when it doesn't have much paint on it. Just a whisper of paint looks so interesting, I don't want to cover it up with more... I'm going to leave it that way. The lemons have the thicker paint on them, and the background is very thin. I might finish this one today, I hope.

3 comments:

  1. You paint so beautifully! May I ask a technical question? How long does it take you to paint one of your paintings? Do you usually do an underpainting? And if it takes more than one day, how do you deal with the way the fruit changes over time, do you rely on your memory to help you?

    I ask because it takes me so darn long to paint anything, I have trouble speeding up, and then my fruit/food/flower wilts or changes shape and it's difficult for me to keep going.

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  2. Carol, thank you for your comment and question! It takes me longer than I'd like to paint a small picture. Most of the time I take a few hours in the afternoon, and then work again on it the next day. I like to choose subjects that won't change, but in the case of my cut lemon, I kept it covered with plastic hoping it would help keep it from drying out too fast. I take pictures sometimes to help, or just mix the colors I see while the subject is fresh, and use that mixture even if the subject's color changes later. I still hesitate to paint something who's appearance is going to change before I'm finished painting it. I should try it more often.

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