Take us to your leader

Fruit of the Day : Take me to Your Leader : Another trio… this time cherries...had a job making all the stalks keep an upright position ..again an over head light helped a lot .

Three Little Apples

Fruit of the Day : Three Little Apples : Trios of fruit are a good number…where as two, stretches my powers of composition three is much easier. using an over head light helps a lot.

Banana Umbrella

Fruit of the Day : Banana Umbrella : This apple is feeling the heat ( yes heat in an English Summer a rare invent ) He is using a banana to keep the sun off...looks as if he is having trouble lifting it..I'd just enjoy the sun if I was he…it might be the last we see of it this year......

Banana Umbrella

Fruit of the Day : Banana Umbrella : This apple is feeling the heat ( yes heat in an English Summer a rare invent ) He is using a banana to keep the sun off...looks as if he is having trouble lifting it..I'd just enjoy the sun if I was he…it might be the last we see of it this year......

Backlit Apple

Fruit of the Day : Backlit Apple : Yet another apple but just as interesting ...as this one is backlit it is mainly in shadow... so getting it to the shadow and finding the right tones and the right colours is fascinating but when you sit back you wonder what all the work was about...it looks like an apple in the shadow...this is the artists dilemma ​...no one can actually know what you put into a painting...the time, the study, the amount of work....they can never know...the fact that you spent hours on that corner where the apple touches the floor will never be known...and may not be of any interest to a client..I guess that we have had that experience and that is that..we will always have that knowledge ...that high...and that is what counts...the creative experience…I suppose.

The Red and The Green

Fruit of the Day : The Red and The Green : Back to apples today...it seems boring to keep painting apples...but the thing about apples is that they are great fruit to paint. everyone is different and as I may have said before...they are like painting a landscape...there is always something new and surprising about them...particularly the shadows and the rounding...the way the light catches the surface as you go from light to the dark side....all good stuff...I only hope that the viewer is getting the same feeling...I suspect not...." Not another freaking apple".....they say when looking and not seeing ............ho hum

Free Grapes

Fruit of the Day : Free Grapes : Not free as in free from a friend ( although they were ) I mean free from the packaging...my friend Humph had brought these around for me to eat or, and, paint...so as I was too weak to open the package ( I've not been well ) I painted them still in their packaging yesterday. Now I had to do the next painting....it took about half an hour to open them..modern day packaging is a mystery...don't they want you to eat the contends...it seems not to me... anyway I managed to open them and have now painted them …FREE!

The Gift

Fruit of the Day : The Gift : My friend Humph brought me this today...to make me feel better ( I have been unwell lately ) and not only a box of grapes but a wooden bowl to put them in as well. Had made the bowl from a piece of oak he had lying around at home and thought it would make a nice bowl and it does…I thought I would resist opening them and eating them on the spot and painting a little painting of them as it was such a kind thought ....thanks Humph!

The Red Sheep

Baaa of the Day : The Red Sheep : What is going on? They have moved another sheep into the next field!…and it's RED!...it shouldn't be aloud...it very disturbing for us proper sheep...it doesn't seem to be eating either...just standing there....staring...

A Nice Pair

Fruit of the Day : A Nice Pair : My son gave me this canvas to try out and it is a excellent board to work on…the texture is very 'canvasy' so I thought I would work directly on it with out guessing over it and wiping all texture away...it works unless... you are using a highly lit subject...then you need to paint in the source of the light.....nice pears though....

Munchees

Fruit of the Day : Munchees : Cherries on a plate..painted looking down on them with a side light a different way of working and another view not tried before...I must stop eating the 'models' I'll be putting on weight if I don't stop it now...I might try sprouts next...that will stop all that munch stuff....

Jug and Apples

Fruit of the Day : Jug and Apples : Over head spot light trying to keep the jug in the background and the WOOPS! these aren't apples ...what was I thinking they are nectarines not apples!!! sorry about that…I remember now ...buying them this morning at the market and not knowing what they were...hence me putting down apples...ho hum....again....sorry anyway I hope it works..nectarines in the spotlight.

Apple Juice?

Fruit of the Day : Apple Juice : Trying to paint a glass...you've just got to get the high-lights correct or it just doesn't work…I had to re-do the glass a number of times before it looked right ...it's harder than you think this ...painting....isn't it?

Banana Fiends

Fruit of the Day : Banana Friends : What is going on here? are they just good friends...who knows…I had finished painting for the day when and was stacking fruit and my tea mug on the table to carry up to the house...when this happened...it looked so to good to miss ..so I kept it for the next day and painted it.....some fun...

Spotlit Jug

Fruit of the Day : Spotlit Jug : Again the new spot light in use again...trying to get the jug in the shadow ad the spotlight on the apple...and interesting way of painting…I'll work on it.

Spotlit Apple

Fruit of the Day : Spotlit Apple : Bought a new spotlight and this is the first try out…look like it will break out into a song at any moment...a music hall apple...

We Three Doughnuts

Fruit of the Day : We Three Doughnuts : Three peaches on my new plate...beautiful subtle colours...these are a wonderful fruit...to look at and to paint ..I must find more of these…

Doughnut Peach

Fruit of the Day : Doughnut Peach : a study of one of the many doughnut peaches purchased yesterday…their colouring is really interesting and good to get into...very subtle

Doughnut Peach Burger

Fruit of the Day: Doughnut Peach Burger : Found this fruit in the supermarket this morning so bought some for painting and eating…heres a tip: have a good breakfast before painting fruit or any food stuff...in a still life..it's all too tempting ...

Apple Reflection

Fruit of the Day : Apple Reflection : Trying to get more reflections into my paintings and did this one on glass…not enough showing so will try again tomorrow...

Interesting Salad

Fruit of the Day : Interesting Salad : It 's fun to have a salad that you just make up as you go along...looking in the fridge to see what might go together..apples and chillies are a good mix…I think I added grapes and anchovies ...a strange mix it ended up being but strangely interesting and yummy.

Pears and Cherries

Fruit of the Day : Pears and Cherries : These red pears and the black cherries real produce some yummy colours…deep and dark....and with a strong light casting a good heathy shadow make a wonderful contrast.

Red Pear

Fruit f the Day : Red Pear : a marvellous colour for a pear a purple-red quite hard to match but managed it and with a good strong light has a wonderful high-light…might try another.

Summer Coal Fire

Landscape of the Day : Summer Coal Fire : What a "Summer" we are having in the UK this year...
so cold..and wet…..why do we live here?...landscape painting is a challenge any time but this Summer you take your life in your hands even stepping out of the door....and the stuff you have to take with you...wellington boots..blankets...gloves..woolly hats...scarves...and a hip flask or two and your painting stuff....!!!...this painting was painted wearing gloves...once I saw the smoke from a coal fire coming from this Summer cottage I knew it was time to go home and make a nice cup of hot tea...and refill the hip flasks for the next outing....ho..hum...

Did you see the Shark?

Beach of the Day : Did you see the Shark? : Dad's are always kidders...this one trying to scare his child who may never enter the sea again...but he knows his dad well and will take no notice…I like the shadows on this one...particularly dad's sunlit three-pack...

Yellow and Pink

Fruit of the Day : Yellow and Pink : Everything yellow...that was my idea but could not resist the pink of this pear there was some green as well now I see it again....but the basic idea was the make a painting in one colour....I'll keep trying…

King of the Castle

Fruit of the Day : King of the Castle : What is going on here? well it's who's the King of the Castle…young apricots play in the sun throwing each other off the plate...what fun it was to be young again...too many apricots to paint here ...some had to be eaten to make a good composition....times are hard when you have to eat your models....ho hum..

We Three

Fruit of the Day : We Three : Like 'Take me to your Leader ' but with a pear this time…trying to get a good match for the green and the orange was testing...still trying to get looser