Red and Yellow Peppers on Dots

These peppers are painted on a very smooth Ampersand Gessoboard panel that reveals a lot of texture from the brushstrokes. As well, paint can be easily wiped off the board leaving an almost white surface.  This means that, rather than piling on a thick layer of opqaue white paint mixture to make lights and highlights, I can work with thinner and more transparent layers of light colors.  This works for me since I use transparent hansa, azo and pyrrol reds and yellows instead of opaque cadmium reds and yellows.

Orange Pepper on Dots

The peppers were on sale at the market - so I bought several, one of each color, red yellow orange.  I dulled down the saturation of the turquoise dots in the background so they wouldn't float off the page.  I like the saturated orange color.

Salt Shaker with Purple Cipollini

Cipollini onions again.  I like the warm/cool shift between the purple red of the onions and the orange red of the background.  I also like the holes of the salt shaker--painted by scraping off paint with a rubber tool. 

Three Pomegranates, One Split

Pomegranates in a group.  I wanted them to be more interesting so I thought I'd crack one open.  Not easy.  I wound up peeling the skin away in a strip to simulate a tectonic fissure. I like the harmonious colors - red and green mixed together for the background.

Clementines, Silver Bowl, and Green

When first I got these clementines, not only did they have stems they had leaves.  But, by the time I got around to painting, one of the stems and all of the leaves had fallen off.  I like the lighting from the top, it creates an interesting shadow and reflection on the bottom of the oranges.

Pomegranates Halves and Whole

Pomegranates have lots of seeds that seem to demand detail and a small brush.  The hard part was keeping myself from getting too fussy. 

Salt Shakers Red Spring Clip

I like the shine and sparkle on these metal caps. At first, the shakers were too tight and I had way too much detail.  So just at the end of the painting I took a wide brush and went back into the still-wet paint.  I simplified the shapes and the values.   Now the detail on the caps is balanced by the looseness of the bottles

Silver Bowl and Cipollini

My daughter brought me these delightful little purple cipollini onions.  Not only colorful, these onions are quite hardy and have lasted for several weeks in my studio. A boon for a slow painter who makes plans to paint but doesn't always get things done.   I like the reflection in the silver bowl.

Three Baby Eggplant

This one has a lovely gray color for the background.  Because the background color is dull and unsaturated, the purples and greens of the eggplant seem saturated and vibrant. A color by itself is not beautiful or ugly; it's the combination of colors that is harmonious or discordant.

Four Eggplants Green Polkadots

More paintings of baby eggplants.  I like how the purples and yellow greens complement each other.  Even though I have lots of color in this painting, I did limit the hues; the dots were originally blue but I made them a purple green instead.  The spot of gray in the corner adds a calm note. It was made by mixing the yellow green and purple together-very harmonious.

Vashon Street and Hill

A view of Vashon's main highway looking south just past K2.  The distant hill is cool and purple in the late afternoon. 

Sailing Lesson - Still at the Dock SOLD

A painting from photographs I took at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union in Seattle where sailboats and rowboats are available for rent.  I like the sunlight on the sails and hull. I reduced the brightness of the whites in the background so that the foreground sailboat would stand out. 

Japanese Anemone

These anemones are lovely late in summer when other flowers have given up.  But you have to be sure to pick a bouquet before the deer eat them all. I like the stiff bent edges and the curly stems, and the pale pink color next to the warm gray.