"Summer Punch Pluots"

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"Summer Punch Pluots"

5 x 7 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

It's already cooling off here in Minneapolis, we had a freeze warning last night which I was not to excited about.  I'm really going to miss summer and the beautiful days it brought, although fall in Minnesota is beautiful.  I just do not want it to go to freezing temperatures already, I want a gradual build up for winter.  These summer punch pluots are a homage to the season thats ending.  I wanted to continue the process of painting in natural light and from life.  I'm enjoying more painting in this manner, i'm starting to see more colors and textures that would be missed if I was copying from a picture.  I also find you can connect with the subject you'r painting when painting from life.  I really love painting this way I get so much more out of it, still trying to adjust sitting down all day rather than standing up.

Picture of my setup.

I started with the usual dry brush approach for the drawing stage.  Once the drawing is complete I start on the background first with cobalt blue, naples yellow, yellow ochre, and titanium white.

Then I state the pluots and wooden base with their general colors, not worried about the lightest and darkest values just a general statement.  Then I stated the darker values with their specific forms on the wooden base.  The colors I used for the base were raw umber, burnt sienna, and cobalt blue.

Then I added the lighter values with their specific values and took the base to a finish.  I then start to state the middle to darker values on the first pluot.  The colors I used for them were cad.orange, cad.yellow light, burnt sienna, cad.red light and raw umber.

Then I add the lighter values with their specific forms, the colors I used for this area were titanium white, quinacridone magenta and cobalt blue.  Once the first pluot is complete I repeated the same process with the second one.

This is the finished painting.  As stated before painting from life and having the subject right in front of you is priceless.  The amount of information you get with colors and temperature is really valuable.  I recommend if you'r able to paint in this way do it, you learn a lot more than copying from a picture.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing, hope you enjoyed this one.

The set up and the finished painting.