"Bananas and Nectarines"

Oil on 6"x6" hardboard panel.
I thought I would rearrange the fruit and do another version of this painting.

"Bananas and Nectarines"

Oil on 6"x6" hardboard
This painting was difficult to photograph because of the dark background, and parts of it were dryer than others. This image is pretty good though, just a bit of glare. I'll try to get a better one, once it's dry and varnished.

"Banana with Strawberries and Grapes"

Oil on 5"x7" Ampersand Gessobord panel
I wasn't too excited about this painting, until I had an impulse to add the blue across the top and include the same color in the shadows. That really made a difference!! I like it much better now.
(I will post this to ebay later this evening. )

"Banana and Strawberry with Box"

This is painted in oil on a 5"x7" Ampersand Hardbord. I recently bought a package of hardbord to try, instead of using the gessobord. It's the same kind of panel, but the gessobord already has gesso on it, and the hardbord does not. I like putting my own gesso on, I did 2 seperate coats, one brushed up and one brushed across, criss crossing each other. It made a nice soft pattern, almost like the threads of cloth.

A Pair of Bananas, Oil on board, 6"x6"

I saw these 2 bananas lying on the kitchen counter, and they seemed to me to be posed as if they were taking a nap together. Isn't that cute?! Anyway, that's why I wanted to paint their picture.

Bananas and Grapes 2

Oil on 5"x7" Ampersand Gessobord
Someone asked me if I might do another painting of bananas.. so, I decided to try another one, since I liked the last one so much. This one is a bit different, it's painted on a 5"x7" gessobord, instead of a canvas panel. I like this one alot, the darker background really seems to show off the colors in the fruit.

"Bananas and Red Grapes" 8"x6" Oil on Canvas Panel

Here is the finished painting, and I really like this one! I had a pleasant time painting it, I didn't change my mind about anything 1/2 way into it like I usually do, and I liked the canvas texture for a change from the smooth hard panels I've been using. I like the smooth panels too, I just think it's nice to change once and a while. I feel like I paint differently on different surfaces. Just the same way as I draw or write differently depending on what kind of pen, or pencil I'm using. It's nothing I do on purpose, it just turns out different all on it's own.

I had posed these bananas and grapes a few different ways, and to help me decide which way I liked best, I took a picture of each different set up. The pictures helped me to remember each of the different ways I had positioned the fruit. Then I could look at them all at once on my monitor, and pick the one I liked best. Then,I set my fruit up that way, and painted it from life.

Bananas and Grapes, in progress...

These bananas are too green to eat yet, so I thought I'd make use of them in the meantime, by painting them. I added the red grapes to the picture, their color seems to go well with the yellow/green of the bananas. I'm painting on a canvas board for a change, (8x6) and I really like how it's coming out... so far.

Fruit and Flowers

Oil on 8"x10" Canvas Panel

Red Pear and Bananas

Oil on 5"x5" Ampersand Gessobord (two pictures, same painting)

I had a pleasant time painting this, and I think it might have been because I bought a couple of new brushes. I seemed to be able to put the paint just where I wanted it, instead of fighting to get it where I want it. Whenever I go to the art store I take the longest time, looking through all the brushes. I feel the hairs, and hold them pretending to paint with it against the shelf to see how the hairs bend... I want one that is soft, but still sturdy enough to use with oil paint. Sturdy, but not one that has hairs that are too stiff, and scratch at the paint. I get softer ones, and then they wind up too flimsy, or once the oil paint is in it, the fibers seem to all stick together in one mass that leaves marks in the paint... grrrrrr! I wound up buying a couple of small filberts from winsor and newton, called "eclipse". The fibers are soft and natural, and not flimsy. I forget, but I think they were labled as black sable. It doesn't say on the brush, and they weren't expensive. I was looking for a mongoose brush, but there weren't any in the store I was in. Maybe I'll have to look online for some. Anyway......

The fruit in this painting is sitting on a glass salad plate. I didn't think I'd be able to make the plate look right, but, it seems to look ok to me.

Bananas and Tangerine 8"x10" Oil on Board

click on images to enlarge
click here to view this painting on eBay.
I played around with this painting today, and decided just to add some new lines and darker values here and there to fill in the space better. I like it much better now. I tried to think of some new object to add, but everything I thought of just seemed to complicate things more. So. I think I am finished with this one.

Bananas and Tangerine

8x10 Oil on Ampersand Hardbord
I thought I would try and do something with a painting that I had started quite a few weeks ago. I had put it away, since I didn't like it very much -for whatever reason, I don't really know. I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I started working on it again, but I didn't. Well, I fixed it up a little, and I'm still working on it, I think I might need to add something in the lower right, near the banana...it seems unbalanced to me with the banana in the back going out of the picture and nothing to balance it out on the other side... I can't just take that banana out, because thats what the tangerine is sitting on... hmmmmm Maybe I'll just have to put it away again for a while.... I don't know yet.