Monday, September 17, 2007

Fresh & Juicy

Acrylic polymer emulsion on gessoed hardboard, 16 x 20"
Painted June 9 - July 10, 2007, #123


It seems hard to post a painting without mentioning my wife Suzanne. In some ways, she has always been my muse. Up until 2002, she appeared in almost every painting I did. It was she who first suggested that I should do more still life paintings. Now, she often provides the subject matter. This spring when she bought these incredibly large grapes at Costco, they were screaming at me to paint them. I knew the challenge with this one was going to be the green pedestal glass plate and to try to recreate the translucence yet opaque film of the grapes.
The other challenge was the scale. I was really out of my comfort zone painting a 16 x 20". Anything beyond 12 x 16" is large for me, and that has to do with my unconventionally technique with acrylic paint. I paint on a flat surface. I use the acrylics as if they were watercolors. The paint is often very diluted with water and would start running down the board if it was on an easel.

- SOLD