Today I stumbled upon an exciting new image idea: front-lit Bosc pears casting shadows on a sky blue background. Like many ideas in art, this one was born of serendipity. I had been painting citrus with front lighting against a light blue background when my classmate Christina remarked that the shadow of my easel on the painted background created a deep dark blue that looked really nice.

Then today I was testing out a new, super bright light bulb (Philips 120W Equivalent Daylight 5000K PAR38 Dimmable LED Flood Light Bulb) with some pears and the light was bright enough to cast visible shadows in the ambient light of the studio. The interplay between the shapes of the shadows in the background and the pears in the foreground reminded me of my Less Is More print series. It seemed that any arrangement of fruit and shadows showed promise. Here is one example:

I am fascinated by the interplay of the deep blue shadow shapes and the yellow pears. This idea has lots of potential.

Since I’ve been focusing on smaller paintings recently, I decided to break the scene into two separate images, with the goal of returning to do a more complex arrangement after a bit of practice.

I love the shape of this Bosc pear. Hopefully I can paint it before it spoils.

Here’s the block in. I especially like how the front of the tabletop is bright, the top of the table is mid-tone, and the shadow of the tabletop is dark.

This is an interesting composition. I also like the reflection of the blue background on the left side of the left pear.

Here’s the second block in. I’m still not happy with the shape of the left pear, which is too generic, so I will probably adjust it as I put in the background.

My studio at the end of the evening, with both paintings resting on my new magnetic easel.