Tomatoes, Tomatoes

Tomatoes 1/ 4 x4/ oil on board/ Gifted

I have been reworking old tight paintings (again). This little 4 x 4 painting (left) is much better with the looser brushwork.

As I was reworking the 5 x 5 tomatoes below, I was reading a book on drawing. The author  likened shading changes to pixels in a photograph. He suggested that to render the shapes in a human form, gradual (pixellated) changes in value were required. I raced to this lower painting which was on my easel, failing for a second go. I added tiny steps of color changes (thinking of the pixel analogy) with the goal to achieve realistic rounded tomato forms.

Tomatoes 2/ 5 x 5/ oil on board/ HH Gallery

I have posted both to FB and asked for preferences. I predict that the artists will like the more (though very slight) abstracted version above.

I am off to buy some green pears...

The book on drawing is: The Artists's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing by Anthony Ryder. It is excellent.

Winter Tomato Study

Little painting to "warm up the brushes" for 2015. Yesterday, my class worked on warm and cool colors to give objects form. Can you see the warm and "cooler" reds in these tomatoes? If you are interested details and purchase information are here

My silk work has to wait for more fabric adhesive. Beautiful pieces of cloth remain all over the chairs in the kitchen and dining room awaiting its arrival.

My big adventure today was melting the ice on the hatch door of the pool so I could swim while temperatures remain below freezing...