Dramatic Pears

7x9 watercolor on 80 lb sketchbook paper done yesterday, another online weekend drawing event for WetCanvas. As the host for 2 weeks my images were featured plus this one from the site's reference image library. COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2025

Pear Study

Pear Study 8x5.5 mixed media of my pear, drawn today before I ate it. At first it was too pretty to eat. After studying it awhile I got out my black Pigma Micron 01 pen and Strathmore Visual Journal for mixed media and drew the whole pear. Then I cut it in half until seeds visible, and drew that along with its end and other sections including the core. Then I took apart the seeds and sketched those. Crosshatching was done for dark areas. Media used was ink, watercolor, and colored pencils; the CPs were "color-sanded" into wet areas with fine grit sandpaper so the tiny specks you see are CP pigment bits. When dry, I stamped 'pears' in black ink at the top and flicked wet paint spray. An enjoyable Bartlett pear for sure after studying it first. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Three Red Pears

9x12 watercolor and gold Sharpie marker on Canson 140 lb cold press paper done last week, an exercise done for my Monday afternoon class. With this approach, a color temperature palette is chosen of warm or cool (reds, oranges, yellows or blues, greens, etc.)then begin with any but only paint a small, medium, and large shape in that chosen color. That hue cannot be used again unless mixed with another for a new color, even white. May add black and at least one cool color if using a warm selection or one warm if using a cool. When done select another small, medium, and large shape already painted to add pattern to with a gold marker for warms and a silver marker for cools, as seen here on the black. Any tiny dot, circle, square, diamond, cross, etc. will work but do not go over the entire composition of flat shapes. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Pear Shenanigans

6×6 watercolor plus ink using STA Lictin 0.2 pen on Masters Touch 80 lb sketchbook paper done over the weekend in under an hour. I sketched its outline in pencil, then placed 3 round colored adhesive dots at bottom and top. Next I coated them with matte medium and let dry a few minutes, lifting them off. Then paint was added but the round areas didn’t do much resist. Splatters at random using several colors was done. When dry some were outlined in ink as was the fruit itself for a little patterning. COPYRIGHT 2023 Kay Smith

Pear Bowl

6x6 watercolor using White Nights paints done over this past weekend as part of another online challenge with WetCanvas! In this endeavor, participants have 2 hours to select an image then draw or paint it. This is on 80 lb cold press Masters Touch sketchbook paper. I enjoyed the fresh green pears in a glass bowl and the white napkin. COPYRIGHT 2023 Kay Smith

Pear Group

6x9 ink and watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper done during a previous #InkTober, a yearly challenge for artists to do one work per day in ink. My favorite pen is Pigma Micron 01 by Sakura that makes a very fine line. These pears were featured on WetCanvas. Works with watercolor and ink used to draw outlines is called ink and line wash work. COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith

Palette Knife Pears

10x13 acrylics on board using spatula and trowel style palette knife. This simple fruit still life was done on a previous weekend as part of a WetCanvas challenge. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Fruit Plate

22x15 watercolor on hot press 140 lb paper that I first coated with white gouache, then painted.  This gives a nice softness to the colors in the fruit still life of pears, strawberries and blueberry muffins on antique china plates.  Before the pear paint dried, I color-sanded colored pencil into it using fine grit sandpaper.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Mandie's Pears

9x10.25 mixed media (colored pencils, watercolor, India ink) on paper done recently along with stamped letters.  Drawn from life, this pear was one my nephew's wife brought over the holidays ordered from Harry and David company.  Very juicy!
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Orange Twist Daffodils still life

22x15 watercolor still life floral done today with colored pencils sanded into wet washes and oil pastels accents, an imaginary scene featuring two types daffodils, pears, bird figurine, cup and plate.  I was attempting to paint in the Shirley Trevena style, an English artist I greatly admire who ignores the rules and has a much looser style.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Winter Pears - Merry Christmas!

6x6 watercolor still life of pears on Masters paper, drawn with Pigma Micron 01 pen, from a market display seen last week while in the mountains.  Some evergreen and red berries complement the almost red and green only Christmas color palette.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2013 Kay Smith.

TransPear-ant Pears

11x15 watercolor of several pears which I tried to make transparent by stenciling doily pattern on top of and under the fruit.  This is sort of a freeform, happy little painting full of light and color.  Daniel Smith paints were used with Strathmore 140 lb cold press paper.

Compote Pears

7.5 x 10.5 watercolor fruit still life of a bunch of pears in white china compote.  It makes the fifth still life so far this year.  I'd fallen way behind in painting still life subjects so one resolution this year was to do more.

Three's Company - fruit still life

15x22 watercolor demo for a local art group of three pears colorfully displayed on a white tablecloth done in about 1.5 hours.  I love the shadow play evident on the far right pear.  Photo ref courtesy WetCanvas! reference image library.  Paper is Italia 140 lb cold press, paint is American Journey by Cheap Joe's Art Stuff.

Another Fractured Images Still Life

Dressy Callas, 22x15 watercolor

Here's another one in the same trend as the previous image ignoring perspective. Each of us in the Caboose Watercolor Society were tasked to create a composition using only 4 objects we'd selected prior and we had 6 months to 1 year to get our works done. (We had done a 4 Objects Still Life show several times). In this endeavor we had one fake calla lily, an Indian southwest blanket, a fake pear, and a coral colored miniature dress form jewelry holder. Good grief! I said when the items were delivered to me, how can anyone make an interesting design out of these incongruous, mundane, and uninteresting things? Well, here is my interpretation anyway, drawn, fractured, and painted in a broken shape relationship where all parts should make a whole.

Ripening

11x15 watercolor done today of 3 pears ripening on a windowsill; photo courtesy of Edtree during WetCanvas weekend drawing event exercise. To participate you must select your photo and do a drawing and a painting within 2 hours. American Journey paints used; Whatman 140 lb cold press paper.

Appearently Pears!

20x26 inches, watercolor on Yupo synthetic paper, completed yesterday. Apparently, I am not yet tired of painting pears!

Second Demo of Pears - Watercolor Collage

More Pears on Pepper Plate, demo done Wednesday, about an hour, for the workshop on pears. This one is 15x22 matboard with collaged tissue (toilet seat covers) and paperback The Winds of War pages, and newsprint type. Also has white gesso in a few areas. The board was prepared ahead of time and when dry I drew the peppers then the pears. Transparent watercolor was next and black India ink line around some of the peppers for distinction. One of the students bought it so it is SOLD.

Demo: Three's Company

15x22 transparent watercolor on 140 lb Italia Acquerello cold press paper; this was my demo 2 days ago at the Midland Palette Club. Doing a direct painting technique allows the artist to drop in pure, fresh color and watch the medium do its thing mixing and blending.

Fashionistas

22x15 watercolor collage on AF gessoed matboard. Other media: Ink, metallic acrylics, newsprint, paper doily. Figure design was drawn first then flipped, pears and tulips added last before paint applied. This painting was a demo for the Abilene arts group last year and will be part of the Caboose Watercolor Society's traveling exhibit in a few months.

Image copyright Kay Smith 2009.