PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS

PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS

Oil on Wood Panel (Gallery Wrap)

20 x 24 inches

I'm glad to pronounce this painting complete! I will try to get a better photo soon. For now, this is it.

My last addition was the leaf that now breaks the strong diagonal. I'm looking forward to starting a companion piece. Yesterday's shopping trip suggests grapes, baby pineapple, starfruit or ??? and  I have a recently adopted collection of milk glass that will probably produce a supporting character!

NEXT!!

PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS - a photoshop experiment

I think the leaf is just what it needed!  I just did this in photoshop and I think it fixes a problem I was having with my composition.  Tomorrow I'll paint it in!

Yea!!!!

PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS - one step closer

Closer!  I decided to go darker overall on the background. I just wanted a hint of pattern and it's almost there. I also added a bit more color in the pewter. I'm not sure if that comes across in the photo which is a little soft.

I still have one more idea to solve the one nagging issue of the long diagonal in the composition. It may need something to break the line.  I'll have to experiment first. Keep watch, I'll probably decide yes or no pretty quickly.

I'd love to see what you think

PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS - getting close!

< detail

I think this is getting very close to being finished. I believe I will put it aside to let it dry for a few days and start it's "sister" painting. When I'm as close as this to finishing the second painting, I'll put final glazes on the backgrounds of both paintings to mellow them out.

I've got a little more than 22 hours into this one so far.  It's larger than my usual format so it's been interesting to work at this scale. I could get used to it. It's also on a 2" deep support (a 20 x 24 inch cradled wood panel) so I've included a bit of wrap-around background pattern on the sides which is a bit of a change for me. Sara Eyestone (curator of The Gallery Collection at La Posada de Santa Fe and mentor to many artists) wanted to see how that format would work with my style and I love not having to decide on an appropriate (yet inexpensive) frame! It's interesting seeing a vintage looking realism with a contemporary twist. I'm looking forward to seeing what she thinks!

PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS - progress 2/14

Today I worked on the pears and a few retouches on the background. I finished off with a little more toning on the wood surface. It's getting closer!  Again, I'll look at it tomorrow and maybe take it outside for a change of light and see how the values and saturation of color looks.

PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS - progress 2/13

I finally talked myself into picking up the brushes again and managed to do the pewter pitcher. Today, it looks pretty ok to me. Let's see how I feel about it tomorrow.

I will attempt to at least rough in the pears tomorrow.  Or maybe I'll refine the wood surface.  I had to buy new pears because the original ones were kind of mummified. Shame on me!

PEWTER WITH THREE PEARS the beginning

Here is the set up for my first attempt at painting in over a year!

I feel like I'm all thumbs and 2" housepainting brushes!

This is what I've done so far... well, actually I've done a bit more work on the background but I haven't photographed it yet. Here is a closeup of the wallpaper background...

A Word to the Wise:   Never stop painting because it's really tough to get back in the swing of it!