ODD MAN OUT

(Click here to enlarge)

The idea for this painting just popped into my head. I've done blueberries, crayons and Mason jars before, but I don't know where the idea for the lone cherry came from. I've had trouble with reds before, especially the darker reds, so I wanted to give this a try to see if I could create a shiny fruit. There are about 8-10 layers of red using a mixture of red madder, orange and scarlet. The blueberries are cobalt blue, indigo and red madder.
I masked off most of the reflection on the cherry and the jar then started layering in the reds and blues of the berries, the crayons and finally the cherry. I initially had about 12 berries but I didn't like the look of it so added the more distant blueberries.
I realize that with the juxtaposition of the crayons and fruit there is a bit of incongruity; but you have to paint what the muses direct you to I suppose and I'm happy with the results.

Vacation Sketches July 2008

Here are three quick sketches I did when we were on vacation in Portland and Seattle:

Portland's Japanese Garden:

St. James Cathedral, Seattle:

Fifth Avenue Court apartments, Seattle WA:

Rotunda Roaster

(Click image to enlarge) I started this piece with the intention of making it an op-art painting with high contrast and sharp edges. But as I got into working on the car itself, I fell back into my usual literal interpretation.

The idea was to have only light cascading from above creating a lot of shadows and dark colors contrasting against the bright areas in light. I did a lot of layering on the lights as well as the darks to make them shine. I didn't do as much detail on this car as the parts in shadown don't show as much detail.

I made a number of mistakes early on but was able to recover and I feel satisfied with the outcome.