Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Bowl Full of Plums


Bowl Full of Plums
Oil on linen mounted on board
230x240
January, 07

Apologies for the lengthy hiatus in my postings here. This one took a bit longer than anticipated. I've been feeling the need to work on some slightly more ambitous paintings again, but naturally, they take more time.

As I've mentioned previously, we've had a bumper crop of plums on our tree this season. It stands alongside the path to my studio and I have to bow my head to pass underneath it every day. It is only a small tree, but it is now bent to the ground, heavy with fruit. I collect the ones fallen to the ground and take them with me to the studio. The small bowl that I've put them in, I got from the local Trade-aid shop. I think it was made in Africa. I love it and I have painted it several times. At first I tryed arranging the plums in a nice symetrical pile within the bowl, but they kept falling from the top to give a lop-sided appearance. After unsuccesfully struggling with this phenomonen for a while, I decided - Oh well, that's the way they want to be, I'll just build my composition around that. So I place the bowl off-centre in the composition with a bit of space on the left hand side and placed a plum on the shelf which seemed to anchor the whole thing down. At this stage I realised that it gave the effect of the plums tumbling out of the bowl. An over abundance of fruit, just like on the tree. So the theme of the painting turned out to be a kind of cornucopia, or "horn of plenty". It's that process of discovery that keeps me fascinated by the act of painting.

3 comments:

  1. Superb painting. Worth the wait.

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  2. Sense of balance and placement is awesome, the whole thing exquisite. Don't stop!

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  3. Wow, how gorgeous Paul!

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