Delft Salt and Pepper Shakers with Fruit

Oil on 8x6 hardboard panel

I've been wanting to paint these little blue and white china salt and pepper shakers. I like their color and the soft ripple they have in their shape. I thought their strong blue color would look nice along with something yellow and something red. I'm really happy with how this came out, because lately I have been trying out a more detailed and smooth way of painting, which is very nice, but, not quite "me". I can see in this, a return to how I naturally paint. And I like it much better. It's me :-)
Thank you to everyone, for your wonderful comments, I appreciate them so much!

"Lemon Peel"

Oil on 5"x5" hardboard panel
I've always wanted to try to paint a peeled lemon. I've never peeled a lemon before, so I just used a knife and cut the peel in a spiral shape. It looked so juicy, and smelled wonderful. I hoped my painting would give that impression.

"Lemon, Plum, Cherries"

Oil on 6"x6" hardboard panel

The contrasting combination of dark violets and yellows is what attracted me again to paint this version of my lemon, cherries and black plum. The more scattered composition happened sort of by chance. I began with the lemon and plum by themselves, but couldn't help wanting to fill the negative spaces around them with those dark cherries.
Have a great Holiday weekend everyone!

"Black Plum and Lemon"

Oil on 5'x7" hardboard panel

I can't help it, there's something so appealing about fruit, I love to paint it. So many colors and textures, and shapes to choose from. I also find that it is a sort of mysterious thing. How a piece of fruit comes to be. How many varieties and flavors, almost an endless assortment! The same with flowers too. Just makes me think of how creative, and clever, and immense God's imagination is. Awesome :-)

"Found Cherries and Lemon"

Oil on 5x7" hardboard
I discovered these cherries while walking by a park nearby my home. It had just rained and some of the lower branches were hanging within easy reach, so I picked a few bunches. They are alot smaller than the cherries from the store, but they are just as sweet.
I'm still trying to keep my brushstrokes loose. It seems to help if I warm up by drawing first before painting.

"Lime, Orange, Lemon and Cherries"

Oil on 5"x7" hardboard
I'm happy to be finished with this one, and now I'm satisfied with it. Whew! I think I'm painted out for a while. I need to mow the lawn and catch up on my laundry!!

"Lemon, Lime and Cherries"

Oil on 5"x7" hardboard
I had a hard time painting the green color of this lime. I think it's because there are so many ways to make green, I can never decide which way to go. I tried using different blues and yellows together. Prussian blue, winsor(thalo) blue, cad.yellows, yellow ochre, raw sienna.. but it seemed like the more yellow I added to the blue to make it green, the lighter it got. I needed a very dark green. So, then I tried using a green to start with; viridian, winsor green, sap green, and adding yellows or deep reds like earth red to it. After many experiments, I found that any green I made needed much more red in it than I imagined. I'm always learning and re-learning things like this every time I paint. I don't think that will ever change.

"Bowl of Fruit with Lemon"

Oil on 6"x6" gessobord
This painting started out with just a lemon and lime in a glass bowl, but it seemed to need more to fill in the empty space. Before I knew it, I added the grapes, then the strawberry for color and more grapes in the background. I tried to keep the background fruits loose, so that the lemon still seems to be the attraction, which is what I intended in the first place. My favorite part to paint was the glass bowl, and the patterns in it.
(I'll list this painting on ebay later this evening)

"Lemon, Cherries and Strawberry"

Oil on 5"x7" hardboard panel
Here is another painting of the same fruit, only I added a lemon. I forgot how difficult it is for me to paint a lemon!! I don't know if it's the shape, or the color, or the texture, or maybe all of the above.. but, it seems every lemon I've ever painted took many tries.

Also... There is still time to vote in the next Daily Painter Contest... if you haven't already, why not take a second and vote! Click Here for the contest page.

Lemons and Cherry 6"x6"

I haven't had time to paint in quite a while, but I finally finished this little one of a cut up lemon and a cherry. It was difficult trying to figure out just what color to do the background. Every time I painted it in, I'd see it later on, and not like it. I finally mixed up some permanent rose with some cad. orange... wow! what a color that is, and then added some ultramarine blue. It made a nice mixture that I thought complimented the lemons.

"Lemon"

Oil on 5"x7" Ampersand Gessobord
Painting this cut lemon, I had such a craving for some lemonade. I think summer is just around the corner. I can't wait.
I've painted lemons before, but this time I used just 3 colors and white. Ultramarine blue, Alizarin Crimson, and Cadmium Yellow. I think using only a few colors makes painting a bit less confusing for me, and easier to understand.

Lemon Slices

Oil on 5"x5" Ampersand Gessobord

I wanted to try something different with this one. I wanted the painting to appear more sketchy, not so finished. I like how it came out.

Lemon Halves 6x6 o/b

Oil on 6"x6" Ampersand Gessobord

Here is the finished painting of the lemon halves. I changed the background color a bit, to a more greenish reddish color, which I'm much happier with. I still wanted the paint to be thin, so I used some liquin with the paint to make it more of a glaze, and then applied it sparingly to the background and shadows. I never used to like liquin very much until I found one that was thinner, Liquin fine detail. It's much easier to use than the regular one, for me anyway. I used to add a little linseed oil to the regular liquin to loosen it up a bit, and that worked nicely too. Anyway, I'm very happy with this painting, I hope you like it too.

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.

Lemon and Red Grapes 6x6 o/b

"Lemon and Red Grapes" Oil on "6x6" Ampersand Gessobord

Fruit and Flowers

Oil on 8"x10" Canvas Panel

2 Paintings....

images may be clicked to enlarge

I have 2 things to post today. The first is a picture of a painting in progress that I started last night. It is of a bunch of grapes, and a single bachelor's button flower. I had started with just the grapes by themselves, and noticed those little flowers I had in a vase nearby, so I added one. I really like the combination of green and purple together.

The second is a painting I finished the other day, of a lemon on a cloth. I thought I would try painting from a different perspective, so I stood at my easel (instead of sitting in a chair like I normally do) so I could look down at the lemon. I liked how it came out, so I think I'll try a painting from this view point again sometime. They are both oil on 5x7 gessobord.

Dark Cherries, and Lemon

click images to enlarge
Oil on 5"x7" board
Since my last post, I've tried painting a couple different things; a day lily, which was beautiful in real life, but not in my picture, then another try at a small vase holding a daisy, and a zinnia... I didn't like my painting of that either, I guess my heart just wasn't in it. So. I went to the fridge and got out a lemon and some cherries... I know I'm repeating myself, but I can't help it. I just love the colors you can put into the yellow of the lemon, and the cherries are like little gems... the top photo is the best.

Lemon and Golden Rainier Cherries

click images to enlarge

Oil on 6"x8" Canvas Panel

Pencil Sketch

Here is the Lemon with cherries painting I did yesterday, I posted 2 pictures because I couldn't decide between the two, which one was better. One has less glare, one has better focus. I also thought I would also include a picture of the sketch I had done before painting. The heavier outlines in the drawing were made as I transfered the image to my canvas panel.

Lemon Cherry

I saw these cherries in the store and bought them so that I could use them in a painting. It didn't occur to me to eat any of them, until I was arranging some, and thought I'd try one....I couldn't stop eating them! they were so delicious!!! It was hard leaving the 4 on the table... I really tried hard to finish this painting, only so I could finish eating those cherries. They were fun to paint. The lemon on the other hand was more challenging than I expected. I'm happy with how it finally came out though. I will post it for sale on eBay soon.