"Blue Plate Special #1"

8x10, oil on canvas board

I seem to be into backlit fruit these days. A couple of weeks ago I bought some blood oranges, since the to colors inside are so gorgeous. I also began to plaint the blue glass plate on different backgrounds (I used the matching bowl in an earlier piece). The glass colors were deucedly difficult to figure out! I'd use the little holes in my ViewCatcher to isolate the color in an area, paint that, then notice that it no longer made sense next to another area; something would be too dark or too light. So I'd adjust. Then that would shift something else. So I'd adjust again. It's a doozy. For instance: How do compare the red you see through the glass against the red in the shadow of the glass? So you gotta keep comparing. It's one of the truisms of painting.

Since figuring out the colors was so hard, I figured I needed more practice at it. :) So there are a few more paintings coming with the blue plate on different colors, hence the numbering in the title. For some reason, it felt right to go a little bigger, too. Go figger.