Apple Buckets

15x11 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper. Foreground is layered with midtones and darks, different values and strokes of grasses, leaves, and twigs. More burnt sienna and quinacridone burnt orange added to shadow side of upright bucket with some splattering to indicate dings and dents. Also I widened the apple tree trunk on the right side and glazed the bark with quin burnt orange. Background leafy tree now has darker shadowed leaves on its left side. Distant tree line on far right was put in for depth, distance and balance. All in all am pleased with how this still life in a landscape turned out. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2024

White Pumpkin

8x10 acrylics on wrapped canvas done last week from photos taken last trip to Albertson's in Ruidoso. I really admired the white pumpkins, grey ones, and yellows. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Trio of Pumpkins

Trio of Pumpkins 6x4 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper done week before last, an imaginary autumn pumpkins still life. In this miniature I've used every yellow and orange hue. COPYRIGHT 2022 Kay Smith

November Apple

9x5.5 mixed media on vintage book text done last week from life as a companion piece to November Pear posted 2 days ago.  I used white acrylic for the highlights and partial background, then watercolor for the fruit and shadows, and sketch done with Staedtler 0.3 pigment liner ink.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kay Smith

Red Anjou and Yellow Bartlett Pears

16.5x20 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper of red and yellow pears that I set up and photographed last Sunday in a yellow and green ceramic compote.  Yellow is the one color you cannot darken so it is a really difficult task for the artist to manage getting values down to the levels they should be seen.  There is also nice bounce light into the pears shadows as well as the dish coming from the southeastern window sunlight.  Altogether the colors interplay well with primaries red, blue and yellow with cool greens in a small supportive role.  This work was done for Painting Friends October pears online challenge.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.