Six Weeks, Second Job, "Plum Buddha" 8x10 - SOLD

 

Six weeks plus is far too long to go without posting... I've picked up a job after eight months of looking and that has bitten into my painting schedule a bit.

 

I purchased a 10-pack of 8x10 double oil primed Ray-Mar panels last month and I think I've fallen in love with these things... They even smell good. It's frustrating to finish a painting and have it not seem as good as the surface deserves. I've painted a bunch lately but there are only a couple of survivors that I'm not going to immediately recycle through the "Paint Over This" pile. I picked up this Buddha statue at Whole Foods, of all places, and right near it was a bin full of "Texas plums". The plums tasted awful, but they were good subjects.

"Plum Buddha" - 8" x 10" oil on double oil-primed Ray-Mar canvas panel

SOLD!

 

"Black Heart And Rose"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on archival canvas panel

 

My first one for February. I feel pretty good about it, despite its simplicity. January was pretty much a dead month and things aren't going so great here at the moment, so it felt good to get back to a familiar subject. I actually hadn't planned on doing anything with plums again so soon, but at the store the other day the lady of the house picked up a "black plum" at random and - mirable dictu! - it was shaped almost exactly like a heart. Pointiest plum I've ever seen. Ten steps further and we found a display of "Pacific Rose" apples. I put the color combination and the names together in my head and thus, we have our painting, with its Fake But Accurate title.

"Red Plum Pair" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

Commissioned to go along with two other plum paintings previously sold. I'm pretty sure I bought the last four red plums available on this side of Dallas!

"Raven Among Plums" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I wanted to place some of the darker, more purple plums with some kind of purple object. The raven is a small crystalline stone item I bought at a gem & mineral show many years ago. I'm not sure what stone exactly it's made of, but the household consensus is that it's amethyst.

"Buddha's Three Plums" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

 

This was done on the recycled panel from last week's post-lunch "wiper". We continue with the plums and the Asiatic theme...

"The Lady of Plum Wine" - SOLD

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

 

Another one on Raphael panel, and I think I'm getting marginally better at this "keeping it loose" thing... Marginally. I've started using only three brushes - a very large (1") angular bright, a 1/4" flat, and my Escoda rigger. The big angular bright is a little awkward to start with on such a small surface, but it keeps me focused on quickly building up mass. I use the flat brush for cleanup & trimming, then the little Escoda is used for touch up, enhancements, and edge control. This all sounds very methodical, and I am a methodical kind of guy, but the actual process, of course, is not so cut and dry.

 

I'm really enjoying painting plums, so I may stay on this theme for a while longer. The cup is from a small sake set brought back from Japan by the roommate's uncle, and the bottle is Fu-Ki plum wine... It's like liquid candy. I think of it as sort of like Japanese Manischewitz. If it wasn't so devastating to my digestive health, I wouldn't be able to keep my nose out of the stuff.

"Prosperity Plums" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

 

While preparing for Friday's painting, it occurred to me that plums are a sort of prosperity symbol. We refer to choice jobs or desirable assignments as "plums", for example. Years ago, just prior to art school graduation, a classmate gave me a small wooden teapot, which he explained to be a symbol of prosperity in Chinese culture. I liked the idea of a symbolic connection between a plum and a teapot. I couldn't find the actual wooden miniature that my classmate gave me (although I can swear I brought it down to TX with me when I moved back here again?), so I settled for one of the roommate's curio items.

 

I'm staying the fast & loose course here, this time on a newly purchase linen panel. The Raphael-brand panels cost 3x as much as Ampersand Gessobord, but I find that they give back a canvas-like feel on a more solid support, without being too rough.