Two Golden Pears

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Soft pastels on Sennelier Carte Pastel Board, approx. 7" x 5"

These two Bosc pears weren't in very good shape anymore, but they still had

some beautiful colors in them, and in the right light they were worthy subject

matter. I had a piece of Carte Pastel left, in one of their colors - which are very

strage, by the way - this one is sort of a cross between tan, curried chicken, and

moss. I scanned the image. Whether a photograph or a scan, it's terribly difficult

to give a color image its due. The "golden" quality doesn't really come through, for

some reason. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to imagine it.

Thanks for visiting.

Two Bosc Pears in a Blue Light

Oil on Gessoed Rag Board, 8" x 7 3/8", $100.00 Bid Here

These pears were painted on a piece of rag board that had been

covered with pink gesso. I love the slight irridescent appearance

caused by laying the blue glaze over the pink. I think one of the

reasons I love oil paint so much is that it is so versatile, and you

can do so many different things with it: use it thickly, smoothly,

tranluscently (called a "half-paste" - see Titian), transparently

(a glaze), or whatever else you can think of. As long as you are

careful with your mediums and solvents and drying times, you're

OK. It's really fun, and challenging too.

Thank you for visiting today.

A Lazy Pear and a Turquoise Background

Oil on gessoed rag board, 6 1/2" x 5 3/4" $100.00
SOLD
I had fun painting these pears. I actually started them
yesterday, so I was able to use some glazes, which deeped
and enriched the colors in the way that I like. There aren't
many shadows, because that is just the way it was set up.

I use bosc pears to teach in my painting class. We do
a really fun exercise, because the class is one in indirect
painting (like they did in the Renaissance and in the early
days of oil painting). The students first paint a grisaille,
which is a black and white underpainting, and comes from
the French word for "gray".

After that dries, they cover that with a very, very thin
layer of a glaze made up of Liquin and Gamblin's Transparent
Red Earth. Voila. Pears! Well, not exactly. They blot the
glaze off here and there, because they have to keep painting,
using a limited palette, and painting into the pears and
background with opaque paint, using little or no medium.
It's amazing the results they come up with, though. Pretty
sophisticated - and some of these people have really never
painted before.

Indirect painting - that's what Jeff Hayes does, if you're
familiar with his blog and all his excellent sequential photos
of his paintings - is really the easiest way to paint. You
basically separate the drawing from the painting part.

Well, it's not quite that simple, but if you're a beginner,
it's worth a try. I'll be teaching it next year at The Art League
School in Alexandria, Virginia, if you happen to live near there.