Painting pears

What is it about pears that makes them so captivating to paint?

Pears and more pears

Pears, nectarines and Frangipani.

Pears, Nectarines, Frangipani
Acrylic on Canvas 30 x 40cm

In summer at least two pictures of fruit and flowers seem to paint themselves. They happen in response to the abundance of fruit at this time of year.

This second one was more painterly than the first and the only bit that was difficult was deciding the colour of the wall. Cream looked washed out so I painted the wall blue.

I painted this in December and the pears are still sitting on the shelf. It is remarkable how long they last. I wonder what chemicals have been used to stop them rotting? Makes you wonder.

Pears and Frangipani

Pears and Frangipani
Acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 40 cm

Warmth, summer fruit and flowers, a general relaxed feeling - they all conspire to make one want to paint, even when beset by a seasonal virus such as the one that caught up with me on my return from Tassie. 

The Frangipani tree is covered with flowers and when I bought these two inside, they were enough to perfume the studio.

Bottles and pears

Bottles and pears

My January exhibition was time consuming to manage and left me little painting time. Once it was finished I had a real urge to paint. The exhibition space influenced the sizes of the canvases I chose as I saw the paintings hanging in the cafe as I bought them: long and square canvases with a 61cm (24") edge.

What fits on long canvases? Well, bottles for one thing; the green (wine) and pink (bubbly) bottles from the exhibition opening party which happened to be still standing on the bench.

I added green pears and wine glasses but it took me a long time and many trials to make the painting interesting.

Progress: bottles and pears

Liquid in the glasses (detail)

Finally, as I was about to paint the whole canvas over, I sat my filled wine glass beside the bottles and noticed the interesting pattern made by the liquid in the glass.

I added some wine  to the second glass and had fun capturing the patterns in paint.

In the meantime the pears had turned a lovely golden shade of yellow, much too beautiful to discard (ie eat) without trying to paint them anew. 

I put them in a bowl and immediately started on a second painting.
 

Bottles and pears 2
(30.5 x 61 cm)

 This second painting was finished in no time and I like it better than the first. 

I don't know whether it was easy to paint because of the time I had already invested in the first painting or whether the autumnal colour combination made it more inspiring and therefore easier to paint.

Recent pictures on the wall

Peaches, pears and bottles

Peaches, pears and bottles

I am on a roll, a fruit roll ... just like this time last year. There is something about summer fruit that is art-inspiring.

This painting is an add-on. I painted some peaches last year - and half a bowl. I liked the peaches but the painting always looked incomplete, so I added another canvas above, completed the bowl and added some pears and bottles.

Watercolour class #1 with pears

The first watercolour class was last night and it was good fun. We painted pears on the cheapest and the most expensive paper I could find.

Pears: Williams painted on the cheapest paper (left) and Beurré Bosc painted on the most expensive (right)

Fruit is always a good motive and I took bananas, apples, pears, tomatoes, though we only used the pears. This week I will be eating fruit for breakfast lunch and dinner.