Monday, January 13, 2020

studies: 3 apples, 3 days



@ 6x9 each

My neighbor gave me a big basket of fruit that contained some Delicious apples; since I usually find I don't like to eat them, I thought I'd try painting them.
May go back to eating them! Seriously, I'm having some trouble with these apples! 
When I first started painting, I used to paint apples all the time ... MacIntoshes. The Delicious apple is more difficult for me: 1) I cannot get the color, neither the dark red nor the almost translucent yellow-green that you can see in places, and 2) I somehow cannot really grasp the volume, the shape ... where it turns, where it's flat; I have tried some different lighting, hoping it would help but I haven't hit on the magic formula yet.
These are some quick studies. I was of course hoping to get a reasonable facsimile of a Delicious straight off, but since I didn't, and can't, I'm going to keep trying to figure it out.   
And I'm open to suggestions!



5 comments:

Barbara Muir said...

Love these, and I feel the same way. Yes. MacIntoshes are my favourite apples.
But you are one of my favourite painters, and these are great. They're sort of the
shape of a red pepper aren't they? But not.

Love your work.

XOXOXOXOXOXO Barbara

Candy said...

I think you're too hard on yourself, Laura. These are nice little paintings! I often show your paintings to my husband because I always like them and you have such a great feel for watercolor - the transparency, the looseness, never any mud, just lovely.

RH Carpenter said...

I’ve had trouble with apples, too - I think you are not getting the really red look of these? Or maybe all red delicous are not that red? I don’t care for them for eating, either - something about school lunches and they usually aren’t that tasty. Keep trying - don’t let an apple get you down!!!

Gwen Buchanan said...

Laura, these are so real they are popping off the page wow... luscious!!!

laura said...

Thank you, everyone. I keep trying ... Luckily apples are nearly always on hand