last plums
Maybe not the very last of the season but with just a few in the box, it seemed like a good title. Juicy and sweet, they have to be eaten carefully …or with abandon, letting the juice run down your chin and arms!
The glowing purple-red of the plums contrasts with the dull green cardboard box.
Wishing you abundance this harvest season.
(c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
just plummy!
More of the season’s bounty – delicious “prune plums”. Ever since I learned that prune is the French for plum, this name has seemed curiously redundant. 🙂 I believe these are the type of plums that are dried into prunes hence the logic of the name in English but they were delicious fresh!
As usual, this was painted alla prima (in one quick session). The background green-ish yellow colour was chosen as complimentary to the plums.
Find joy in the simple things and may the day bring you contentment!
(c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
pair of pears -3
Third in the series with Bartlett pears this time – a lovely green with subtle warm tones hinting towards red and yellow. The ribbed blue bowl added a fun counterpoint to the organic pear forms. The background contains the complimentary colours of the subject. This 6″x 6″ oil on gessoed board was painted alla prima and as with all three “pair of pears”, painted entirely with a #10 flat brush.
May the simple things in life bring you joy and contentment!
(c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
pair of pears – 2
Continuing the autumnal harvest theme with more pears – this time red Anjou pears. Such a gorgeous colour! The painting came together with the complementary green(ish) colour of the background and some hints of green in the pears.
Once again, alla prima fun – oil paint on 6″ x 6″ gessoed board.
(c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
pair of pears 1
The cooling days and season of harvest inspired me to take a look at pears – to start, the golden brown colour and elegant shape of Bosc pears.
This is a small 6″x 6″ oil painting. Working at this scale is freeing since the time commitment is much less than larger pieces. It was simply a pleasure to use the alla prima technique (all done in one session) and see the piece come together quickly. With this method, the brushwork has an immediate, fresh quality that I enjoy.
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
looking up through trees – 9
Here is the final (centre) piece of my “Looking up through trees” series. The underpainting for this one was a combination of cad orange and yellow.
Tom’s haiku for the overall piece is written in India ink with a stylus on the finished centre painting. This was an experiment and I am still thinking about how text can be integrated into oil paintings in the best way to look part of the art.
eagle forest sky
high above through reaching trees
rooted deep in Earth
Looking up through trees – all 9 paintings of the series together
I am quite happy with how this came together. Things don’t match perfectly but that wasn’t the intention. It’s the feeling of being there that I wanted to communicate.
This is going to be interesting to frame with small equal spaces between each panel. The gaps between panels will be black and the frame will have a black shadow gap at the edge. I may post the framed version once it’s ready.
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 TJ Radcliffe
Looking up through trees – 8
The under-painting for this one is cad orange and some cad yellow medium. Unlike some of the others of the series, there is no single large tree, but a characteristic texture of foliage, branches and light. I played with a variety of colours for the sky peeking through – blues, mauves, turquoises… That and the bits of under-painting that remain, give a nice vibrancy.
This is the second last of the series! The next post will include the centre piece and all nine 6″x 6″ paintings put together. 🙂
Here is Tom’s haiku written just for this piece – I don’t see any squirrels but I sure can imagine them!
searching bursts of green
ruffled breezes passing by
shaking squirrels on high
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 TJ Radcliffe
