Updating those fruit and veg

APOLOGIES.

Your blogger was too keen to get the pictures up on the web (before a lockdown birthday) and so was delighted to receive more paintings later. 

May we remind you of the August theme for the Hugh Murdoch Trophy:

THROUGH THE WINDOW. 

It can be any sort of window. See from outside in. Or inside out. A passing glimpse through a car or truck window. A bird tapping away at your window (I have a very persistent couple of sparrows in Fish Hoek), view from an airplane window, the window of the gondola going up Table Mountain, something in a shop window, the rain drops coming down your window... Wow! 

There are just so many options. Start thinking fellow artists.

So back to our fruit and veg pictures. The latest ones are now the first ones in the page.

Sue Wilkes tackled here complicated theme (flowers AND fruit) in watercolour with great effect. Glad to see you used all the paper for this bright and large image, Sue.

  

 Maugie found some colourful bold fruit to tackle. The fruit bowl has an excellent composition, Maugie.
Is it pomegranate season? Are these works in oil or acrylic?  I can see they are on a canvas surface.
Either way, well done. 

And Noni took to painting a trug of summer garden produce in watercolour.

And now back to our earlier works.

This picture was done with oil pastels, a delightfully rich medium. Maureen used a blue dish to successfully set off the vivid yellows and oranges. Note how the roughness of the paper contributes to the illusion of roughness in the orange peel. Do more Maureen!

John found some vibrant autumn coloured leaves which he put, to great effect,  on a very dark background. This type of background that focuses your interest on the subject matter is worth trying out with other still life arrangements.

Ann returned to the ever popular theme of peppers: Using a mixture of graphite an watercolour they are bright and vibrant. Most of us have peppers in the larder and their solid rounded shapes are excellent for subject matter.

Fiona went a bit overboard trying out various different approaches (and learning where she ought not to venture!).


Watercolour and a wobbly hand didn't produce a good result. So she got out coloured pencils where the artist is in control and did the same bit again with greater success.

But there was more to come. That pile of fruit and veg.

This was a graphite drawing with a bit of overlaid watercolour. Ann did something similar above. It is probably more successful as a graphite work but the temptation to add colour was too much.

Why stop there?

And so she did it, item by item, in watercolour. And splatted some colour over the end result.

There are so many different ways of tackling a picture, as we showed in the previous blog concerning a challenge to produce fruit and veg.

It is fun experimenting and don't forget to use both sides of your paper so nothing goes to waste.