The pursuit of prolific painting

Mango II

A somewhat different take on a familiar subject. (I'll post a better quality photo once it dries a bit)

First off I forgot an important smell in my list of favorites- wet oil paint. Turpentine not so much, but wet paint like on this fresh canvas makes me smile. I'm quickly remembering how much I enjoy oil painting, I've missed it. This one went through some real rough stages, and I don't like the finished product as much as the previous still life, but at least it came together. I originally had just the 'hat' of a strawberry next to the mangos, but since the mangos are small and the strawberries big, it just looked all wrong. So I wiped off the berry half and put a whole berry in its place. I also had a different foreground and background which didn't work out at all. Another big difference between this one and the last one is the use of black. Although hard to tell in the pictures, the orange and strawberry piece doesn't have any black paint, the dark areas are a mix of red, green, and blue. This makes for a much more visually engaging picture as well as ties the colors together. For the mango and strawberry piece I did use black for the background and shadows. Just experimenting with different techniques and ideas. This one is barely off my main easel and onto the mini drying easel but I already have the underpainting of my next one done! This time I'm going to try to take a more methodical and classical approach which will involve more careful mixing of colors and probably more time. I'm also traveling to southern Utah for a few days this weekend and I plan to take my gear to do some 'plein air' painting of the red rocks.