Loading Nets

Oil on Canvas 36"x30"
This is winter on Vancouver Island. The Western King is loading nets on a drizzly day in Campbell River. Her stern sits high in the water so you can tell she's empty. Fishermen make a good living, but the weather and currents can be treacherous, especially in winter. I admire those folks. This scene attracted me because I like the industrial look. The vessel is a working boat, not designed for pleasure, and the whole sort of grittiness of the scene I find strangly beautiful. I thought I would post this as contrast to the sunny summer paintings.

Red Pear

Oil on Canvas 40"x30"

I've done a few paintings with striped backgrounds like this. I like how the background becomes more active, more theatrical. Because the stripes are so dynamic, I have to arrange the folds carefully, so they don't compete with the foreground. Sometimes I spend hours just pfoofing the fabric, trying to get the folds "just right". Usually the best attempt is the first one, when I wasn't thinking about it too much. The light here is early morning, well, not too early, certainly not before coffee. I don't see red pears very often, I thought it would make an interesting contrast with the green.

Pink Ladies

Oil on Canvas 10"x10"

I usually paint from a lower perspective, but I am experimenting with looking straight down at the subject. The forshortening is extreme, and the lighting tends to flatten out. There is also a tendency for this perspective to look more graphic, so I try to compensate with the folds in the paper and the cast shadows on the fruit.

Wrapped Fruit

Oil on Canvas 10"x10"
This is part of a series of small canvases. Even though this is a small piece, it took about three days, the details in the tissue and on the fruit is complex.

Three Apples

Oil on Canvas 18"x36"
This piece is available at the West End Gallery in Victoria, Canada. Summer on Vancouver Island receives intense sunlight for about three months. I like to take advantage of it while it lasts. With the branch extending to the right, the painting has a vague Oriental feel to it that I didn't intend but enjoy looking at.

Crabapple and Pear

Oil on Canvas 12"x12"

Crabapples are small and tend to be symetrically round. The relationship makes the pear look monumental, which I didn't intend, but I think it looks interesting. I was more after an abstract geometrical study, with the long shadows adding a linear contrast to the "orbism" of the fruit.

Strawberry

Oil on Canvas 13"x13"
This is my first and likely my last painting of a strawberry. The strawberry has a lot of seeds which are fairly uniform in spacing and pattern, but not mechanical, so there needs to be a bit of looseness. Each seed is oval shaped, and depending on the light, has a highlight. As well, each seed is set into a slight depression, which is most noticed in the highlighted area.

Pear and Plum

Oil on Canvas 10"x8"
I did this painting over two half day sessions, so it sort of qualifies as a painting in a day. I used a generous amount of oil, and as a result, it has somewhat of a juicy appearance. The fruit was lit by sunlight, creating shadows that are quite dark in contrast to the highlights. Working in sunlight is my preferred method for painting.