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Rookie cherries – a painting a day
size 6 in x 4.5 in 15cm x 12cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
The wind continues and slowly weakens. There was enough rain in the night to refill the waterbutt, things do at least look damp again for the first time in a month. Lots of apples have blown off the trees so I made an apple sauce by quartering them and coring them…it was edible but tart, not fluffy as it will be when the cookers are ripe.
I have sold a number of pictures in the last fortnight, this has led me to revise the prices on some in order to slow down the sale of the paintings that fit well into a particular niche. I may hold some back altogether in order to make coherent sets for framing and exhibition later.
On the subject of sales I am going away for a while to do some painting. If I can master the technology I will post as often as possible. However I will not be able to post i.e. mail any sold items so will lengthen all the e-bay auctions and put Etsy on vacation mode.
Today I painted some more cherries but from a photographic reference posted on Rookie Painter challenge. Is it possible to tell that these are from a photo and the previous cherries were from life? I can’t tell until my eye is detuned from the new painting and sees it fresh.
#102 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Cherries in a bowl – a painting a day
NFS size 5 in x 6 in 12cm x 15cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
The secret with the watercolour is to use clean water as a paint. For example yesterday’s picture bled dark purple onto the background so much that the picture lost definition, I managed to wash it away carefully and soak the extra water up into a tissue. This restored the shadow to a paler more realistic tone. I am still not entirely happy with the stalks and highlights but the picture does have a 3D look in thumbnail. That tells me that broadly speaking the tones are right.
I had some time to myself today which is the first time that has happened in two months almost.
Apart from some weeding, watering and washing (i.e. the usual round) I did get some arrangements made to mesh the boys weekend (one away), the neighbours diabetic cat and some food for Geoges funeral on Monday. The next thing I must think about is clothes shopping for summer clothes as they are both growing out of what they wore last year.
I got the boys to disinfect and sponge down their pool ready for filling; they really think that I was being nasty to them and unreasonable in my own uniquely annoying way. They discussed leaving it dirty, they argued over who had done how much and it was painful but in the end there was a cleaner if not clean pool. So now of course the weather will break and I will not have to do the watering for a while, result!
#90 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Black cherries – a painting a day
size 4.5 in x 7.5 in 11cm x 19cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper
I don’t really know yet if the black cherries are a goer. They started out well, all to plan, nice and subtle in the background and then I kept going when I should have stopped and waited for things to dry out a bit. Loose painting is good until it gets so loose it falls apart.
The cherries came from the market stall in the next town .I went there after driving past the sixth form college with No.1 son and dropping him off round a corner where no-one would see me . It was a taster day when they were to do simulated A level lessons. He was clearly not looking forward to the whole thing as he was distinctly ratty.
So I did some food shopping, came home, made a nice lunch, dragged the umbrella back round to the table and opened a bottle with some allotment friends. This was looking good until I went back to lock the front door and there was No1 son back home in a foul mood…still don’t know why.
We mended the big swimming pool later; the last summer it was out a visitor poked holes in it with one of the cleaning tools. They weren’t caught red handed so it was impossible to do anything about it but I really felt for the kids who had clubbed together and spent a lot of their own money on the pool. I will be more vigilant in the future and make sure no-one gets a chance to be so destructive again.
We got one pound four ounces of strawberries in total early and late…the end is in sight. However there are currants and blueberries to come.
#89 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog
Lemon a day 