Small Yellow Peppers Green Plate Squared

Another painting of the yellow peppers; this time with the green plate squared up to the front edge of the canvas, hence the title.  I like the repetition of shapes,  horizontals,  colors, and lines.  The vertical edges of the plate and the vertical pepper add contrast as does the touch of red in the cast shadow of the pepper. 

Small Yellow and Red Peppers on a Green Plate

This is my favorite still life plate.  It's small enough to fit just a few orange slices or these small sweet peppers.  It also has lovely planes that pick up light and shadow.  Plus it gives me opportunity to practice drawing in perspective. 

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.

Yellow Pepper on Brown

This yellow pepper is lit on the back and the side leaving just a narrow rim of bright color.  The color in this painting is limited but the bits of red and green make this painting more interesting.  A very dramatic presentation.

Yellow Pepper on Green

This yellow pepper had light on the side but most of the pepper is in shadow. I like the drama of the side light, the dark yellow shadow, and the dark shadow of the background.