“Tangerines and plums.”
What a week!!! It started with mild weather, spring coming and the garden filled with crocuses and other little flowers. And, now, the snow is melting rapidly, leaving large patches of green grass and half frozen herbs and plants. The two olives survived, lost lots of leaves, but seem to be OK. Most of herbaceous plants are more or less affected, we’ll see in few days if they will survive.
But, let’s start with the beginning. I put the easel up early this week and did the setup with tangerines and plums at the beginning of the week. My intention was to do alla prima over couple of days and finish the weekly painting before weekend. The thing it doesn’t always go with the plan, so winter strikes back, causing chaos all over the country. Myself got stranded in Weymouth for couple of days, staying at a hotel and long walk to and from work. Anyway, in the end everything came back to normal and I got back home and to the painting. I was tired at the end of the week, hence I completed the painting on Saturday afternoon, adding the finishing touches on Sunday morning.
The fruits made it to the end, drying and with the leaves contorted and battered and dehydrated. Before I got stranded, I managed to start the still life, putting all the main shapes, shadows and lights, but I had to adjust them when I started on Saturday.
I painted using the same techniques as with my last few paintings, using a limited palette and just turpentine to thin the paints, no medium at all.
For the values I used the B &W viewer; it is amazing. I painted in low light again, using the strong lights, only from time to time to help with adjusting the colours.
So, here it is:
“Tangerines and plums”
Oil on linen.
24 X 30cm (10” X 12”).
