"Peony Bud" 6"x6"

Oil on gessobord.
I have white peonies in my garden that I have been wanting to paint. I have vases full of them in the house, but I just couldn't seem to do a good painting of them. Until one day, I thought I'd try to just do one bud, and I was happy with the result. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to do the whole vase full of open flowers. Too bad peonies don't last long. They seem to open all at once, and after a couple of weeks, they're all gone.

"Cantaloupe and Strawberry"

Oil on 5"x5" Ampersand Gessobord
Here is my finished painting.

"Cantaloupe and Strawberry" (in progress)

Oil on 5"x5" gessobord
I was all set to have a nice big slice of this cantaloupe, but one bite, and it was clear that it wasn't going to be any good to eat, just to paint a picture of. I guess I just don't know how to pick out a good melon. It reminded me of an old "Seinfeld" episode, when Jerry says to Kramer... " fruits a gamble, I know that goin' in.." hahaha. Anyway,
I love it's pale orange color, and the way it fades into the pretty pale green near the rind. I added the strawberry for some color. I finished late, so I'll take a good picture of it tomorrow.

"Apple and Grapes"

Oil on 5"x7" Canvas Panel
It took me a few days to get a picture of this painting. It seems to be very hard for my camera to pick up differences in red colors accurately. I spent some time experimenting with photoshop, and came up with this image. I still think the original painting has some subtle color changes that are not showing up in the photo, at least, not on my monitor. This is as close as I could get.

"Watermelon and Strawberry"

Oil on 6x6 gessobord
I did this painting a couple of days ago, but wanted to wait for the cloudy weather to pass so I could take a picture of it outside. I painted it with the same colors as I mentioned before, for the lemon, but added pthalo green, and some winsor red. I like using the green to darken the reds, and it makes a super dark color when mixed with alizarin crimson.