Friday, April 8, 2011

STILL LIFE with PEARS, PLUMS and RASPBERRIES

Still Life with Pears, Plums and Raspberries
12 x 16, oil on canvas, 2011
(painting no. 2)

The pears I painted last week as studies are now placed in a more complex composition.
This painting is part of the "Black Painting Series".
The background is eliminated so that the focus is only on the objects and their reflections.
It is a study of contrasts in color and value, white tissue and black background.

Thematically it refers to a 19th Century Philadelphia painter, William John McCloskey, who was a student of Thomas Eakins.
McCloskey is now known as the "wrapped fruit painter".




William John McCloskey
Lemons
10 x 17, c.1890

Both McCloskey's and my painting are very much in the Western painting tradition with articulated form, perspective and surface detail. However, I went to an earlier source for inspiration, the Southern Sung Dynasty of China.


Mu-ch'i
Six Persimmons
ink on paper, c.1269

The painting is a brilliant example of intuitive composition.
The placement of the fruit is perfect.



3 comments:

  1. Love the new style, featuring the fruit against black, very riveting and dramatic.

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  2. Love the new style of painting. Very much like the Mu-Chi and McCloskey references offered -- you are the perennial teacher. Thank you for teaching me about your work! MORE!!!!!!

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  3. Debbie,
    Thanks for following along on this journey across 52 weeks. Watch for the references to Italy and Italian painting!

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