Tropical Fruit

Another opportunity for me to paint a still life group. This week the subject was Tropical Fruit. The supermarkets have lots of choice and the purchases are very edible, so I was surprised that most of the members chose to paint from photos again.
I was happy to buy a selection so that, for a change, I could paint from life. I ended up with a pineapple, figs, lemons, and pomegranates in my basket, but I have to confess to adding a photo of a bunch of grapes to the pile.

Armed with my favourite copper pan and some white linen, I made a pre-session careful drawing of the group. I like to do the drawing at home, as there is more space to push the still life away from me, to give a better angle. I am also quite slow at drawing, so needs must if I want to actually paint during the session.

I worked across the composition from left to right, painting the fruit first ( This was, after all, the subject of the session) enjoying using rich colours, mixed on the paper where possible, and trying to keep everything as fresh as possible.I used lots of the quinachridone colours with Translucent Orange and even some Teal blue in the fig. I used Paynes grey with a little Quinachridone Magenta for the shadows on the cloth and Moonglow for fruit shadows.
The dark foreground colour is Anthracite Blue and the background colour is a mixture of Burnt Umber, Anthracite Blue and Translucent Orange. It was lovely once again, to paint a piece with such strong vibrant colours.It was also nice to complete the painting in the two hour session.

                                                        Still Life With Tropical Fruit
                                      Fabriano Artistico Extra White 300g Cold Pressed Paper
                                                                  30 x 45 cms