Monday, March 2, 2009

"Mineola Blues"


Orange things - they're tough in gouache. A few weeks ago I tried painting clementines. You know those small sort of squashed looking orange-y things that the peel just slides off of? I live on them in the winter, such a jolt of sunshine. But painting them was not happening. I made three attempts: the first was too red and dark, the next too light - and like striped billiard balls, and on the last attempt I lost the shape altogether.

So I gave myself a couple of weeks away from orange things, but I couldn't let it go. This time I tried mineolas, love that knobby end the stem comes out of, it gives them some structure. And I remembered this blue pottery bowl. This is much better than the clementine efforts, but I think veering a bit towards water color. I was having trouble making the yellow gouache opaque, and when I add white to the cad red/yellow mixture it really dulls down. Perhaps this is the time to try another brand. I do like the bowl and mineolas together, maybe I will give it a go in oil.

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