Lemon #7

Lemon #7

4"x5" gouache on paper

Now I'm back in my comfort zone with lemon #4 re-described in gouache. I've done quite a few small paintings in gouache, it reminds me most of painting in oil in terms of consistency and color mixing, but of course, dries much much faster. I used some dry brush here, which I'd like to learn to do in oil.

Thanks very much to Sally Dean and JanettMarie for recommendations on great lemon paintings:
- Sally recommends Robin Rosenthal's "Egg and Lemons", it's great. And check out Robin's other work. I also like the next painting on her blog, "Bananas and Teal Jar".
- Janett Marie recommends Julie Ford Oliver's "More Lemons", and if you look at Julie's posts in May of 2012, there are a lot more, just scroll down a bit. And don't miss the sunflowers in the polka dot pot, I love that one too!
- Do take a look at my dear friend Joelle Feldman's "For Limoncello", it is one of my favorites.
- And finally, Julian Merrow-Smith has done many lemon paintings, "Lemon and Cup" is my all time favorite of his, though I have to confess, the pottery mug (David Garland, I think) in this painting grabs me too.

Lemon #6

Lemon #6

4"x5" watercolor on paper

I think it's a great learning experience to explore a subject in different mediums, so here is lemon #4 reappearing as a watercolor. I'd like to get more experience with watercolor, because it's so convenient to take along when traveling, or just going about your daily routine. I could've chosen a better paper here, just one of the things I learned. The background is actually a bit more green than in this scan...

Any more favorite lemon paintings before I include them in a post? Thanks to those who've spoken up so far, I'm enjoying the exploration.

Lemon #4

"Lemon #4"

oil on gessoed paper

~ 5"x7"

There was lots of paint on lemon #3, and here I'm back in my comfort zone with not so much paint. I like the subtlety of this one. Just a lemon sitting on a cutting board with green tissue paper behind it. And I really studied the lemon.

Lemon #3 with Dish

"Lemon #3 with Dish"

5"x7" oil on gessoed paper

I love this little dish. I don't remember where it came from, but we keep garlic in it. And as you can probably guess, I spent more time on the dish than on the lemon!

Lemon #2 with blue jug

Lemon #2 with Blue Jug

5"x5" oil on gessoed paper

For the second lemon I wanted to add something, and I love this blue jug. And I like that it's the color of the background on Lemon #1. This time I used Fabriano watercolor paper with one coat of gesso, and roughly the same palette. I like it.

And thanks to those who made suggestions for what's next.

Lemon #1

"Lemon #1"

5"x7" oil on canvas panel

I started this blog in 2009 with a goal of improving my painting, by painting regularly and often, just like practicing a musical instrument. And it worked (compare the paintings from early 2009 with those in the summer of 2010). But after a while, I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. And then life intervened, and I slowed way down. And I could feel how rusty I was getting.

So it's time to get back to practicing! And to give that some structure, here's the plan: each month I'm giving myself an assignment; a subject to learn to paint better, a process experiment, something to focus on. This month, I'm painting lemons. Here's the first one, really simple, a single lemon sitting on a cardboard box.

Any ideas for the next one?