Grapefruit Devotional

Greetings dear readers! This painting is called Grapefruit Devotional for several reasons. I look forward to sharing all of these reasons with you here today. But first, let me share the context for this painting now.

Favorite Things

So, this blog post and painting are a part of a series called “Favorite Things.” I love to draw and paint and, each week, I share a painting with you. So, if you think you might enjoy seeing a new painting and blog post each week, please sign up here. This week I also will share my painting process, challenges I faced, and how I name my paintings. Are you ready? OK! Here goes!

Historical Reference and Confession

Earlier this year, I took a fantastic, 8-week, online workshop with Zoey Frank. Each week, she described fundamental steps she takes to create most of her paintings. During this class she shared how she uses a Master Painting as a reference.

This is where I should be able to cue up my deep knowledge of art history from that course I took in college, right? Welp…I confess I fell asleep in art history class in college. Maybe it was the 8 a.m. class time? Or maybe it was the 8 a.m. class time combined with the low lights and the slideshow and the professor droning on and on and on.

Fortunately, Zoey’s class met at lunchtime! Whew! And, she shared her vast knowledge of art history for no more than 15 minutes or so during each class in the course. And, more importantly, she shared that we students ought to seek out images that resonate with us and use them as a reference or touch points in a painting.

Painting Reference

So here is my painting reference for this week’s painting. It is entitled Peaches and a Glass Jar. It was painted in 50 AD. So you may be thinking “Huh?” How did Julie get from this wonky painting of greenish peaches on warm reddish shelves to her grapefruit on a plate painting? I am so glad you asked.

First I love the playful nature of this painting and the fact that it’s not perfectly representational. What do I mean by that? Well, check out the perspective on that glass pitcher. It’s wonky. But it’s fresh looking and compliments the peaches. And, even though I didn’t paint a painting with red/greens, I did think and use complimentary colors in my painting.

Challenges

OK here’s where I share the big challenges of this painting. Cue up: lighting photos. Here’s what the still life set up I painted looked like in the morning around 9 a.m.

In the above photo, you can see that the light is coming from the upper left hand corner. And, there is a cast shadow from the grapefruit to the right on the plate. Oh and that little black mark you can see to the left of the grapefruit? That’s just the edge of the tape I used to mark off where the grapefruit sits on the plate. So when I put the grapefruit away in the fridge each night, I’ll know where it goes the next day.

OK, dear reader, here’s where things get tricky. This next photo shows the same still life set up in the afternoon.

Notice anything different? Ya, check out that pesky cast shadow. It’s now on the upper left of the grapefruit. And the plate is casting a shadow on the left too. Plus, look at the highlight on the grapefruit. See that white triangle? That’s actually the north light window light. How cool is that?

Conundrum

I loved seeing that north light window highlight on the grapefruit in the afternoon! But, I preferred the cast shadow that I could see in the morning. And, since I want you, the viewer, to see a painterly, even kind of dreamy, representation of this luscious grapefruit in light. I had to choose one view or the other. And, so I did.

Palette

Before I share my painting naming process, I will also share the paint colors I used this week: Burnt Umber, Permanent Rose, Cadmium Scarlet, Raw Sienna, Cadmium Green Pale, Cadmium Green, Phthalo Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Cremnitz White, Titanium White. Notice I did not include Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow or Ultramarine Blue in the palette. Why? To challenge myself to create these colors somehow without having them.

How I Name My Paintings

Anyway, that’s a whole other story so I’ll leave the colors there. OK? Here’s how I name my paintings. The name comes to me while I am painting. I am not kidding. Here’s how it goes: I usually paint in silence. I typically can’t have music or podcasts or talking or news going on while I paint. I love painting in complete silence.

As I paint my mind is problem solving the painting, of course. But, my mind is also stirring up thoughts and even memories. So one memory that popped into my head was about my dad. I had a pretty clear recollection that he loved to drink grapefruit juice. Hmmm…is that right? Not sure.

What did I do? I checked into to the extensive resource of my four sistas. We Zoom each week these days. It was so cool to find out that, in fact, dear old dad loved grapefruit…not just the juice. I could write a whole blog post about my dad: his stunning good looks, his inability to call me by the right name (calling out all the other sistas first before getting to me: Kath, Ruth, Marg, Beth…I mean Jule…ha), and his devotion to my mom. But what’s the point of writing about him when I thought about him the entire time I painted this luscious, dreamy grapefruit? Right? And, that is how I came up with this painting’s name.

For Sale

This sweet painting is for sale for $375. If you click on this link you can see a larger version of the painting and the link to pay for it via PayPal. And, there you have it, dear reader. I hope you have enjoyed reading about the planning, problem solving and naming process for this painting. How about you? What techniques and tools do you use to problem solve in your world? I would love to hear from you in the comments below.