Paul's Peppers

We found a jar of Cherry Peppers in a 99p shop in Petersfield this weekend. 99p shops are wierd, because you realise you don't know the price of so many things normally, so therefore don't know if 99p is a bargain or not. We made lots of  'savings' by buying things we'd not normally buy anyway... who needs four packs of coloured chalk? But the peppers are beautiful, looking.

I have no idea why I painted them small and up in the corner, perhaps subconsciously I was trying to shuffle the saucer off the page so I didn't have to deal with it. I like the purplegrey shadows.

bananas

Yipee, not a pepper. First time trying bananas. Non shiny fruit and veg don't have that nice little highlight thing that helps give a lift to a pic, so I let a nectarine hang out in the background.

I wasn't at all brave enough making the dark front bits of the bananas darker, so I went back and faffed, which is always asking for trouble. Also, I should have made the difference between the green wall and blue floor a bit more obvious. Also, to be utterly honest, the green wall wasn't that shade of green at all at all, but I couldn't mix the right colour. But, I don't mind the nectarine. Funnily enough, I sort of ignored the nectarine and just did it with a few quick swipes, instead concentrating on the bananas. It looks like the few quick swipes approach may have been the better one.

Fork 'n' pepper.

I've decided I don't like goddam peppers. It's still bitty . The fork could be worse. Could be better. But could be worse.

On the upside, it's better than yesterdays pepper. I don't like approximately 87% of the brushstrokes on the pepper. I like trying though, it's strange that it's rewarding even when the results are so weak. Today I painted while listening to 'The making of music' , a history of classical music. There is a little track, of a bit of a mass by a Renaissance composer Josquin Desprez, and when I hear it , tears well up. It's the strangest thing. Not the best thing when you are attempting to squint at a pepper it has to be said, but a moving weird experience.

shot glass

I wanted to see if I could do a glass, I like these little shot glasses, and I'm not horrified by the result. By the pepper yes, but I don't mind the glass, even though I think the elipse is wrong and the shape is wrong, I think I've got the idea of a glass, ish.

I'm more than underwhelmed by the pepper, god, it's so bitty, brush strokes all over the place. Also, there is no proper dark. I need a) to be braver and b) to light the subject better. Yes, I think I'll blame the lighting.

Photo realism

Well, I got this to perfection, I nailed that wonky bowl, and captured that murky background to perfection. Ah, the talent.

Garish and Gaudi and a tad Grim

Yup, it's confirment, I have no notion what I'm about. I was randomly dabbing, scraping and blobbing, as well as huffing, puffing and sighing. What was it I liked about doing this again?

I figured it was time to fall back on chillies, I can do chillies.  It wasn't,  I can't. Still, it was nice standing there, painting away, listening to good old Melvin Bragg on the radio.

Turn around and start it again

Wow, I've just checked and it's been around eight months since I last painted or posted, which as it turns out, is just the right amount of time to make sure I have completely forgotton the little I had learnt. I've finished studying for this year, so have a bit of time, yipee, and I thought it would be nice to continue with this painting malarky.

It turned out to be less of a continue, more of a turn around to where you started and then take three steps back. N'mind. I didn't know what I was doing , what went on first, when to , how to, why to , what to. After a while I just gave up and didn't get around to doing anything with the chilli. On a positive note, I think I actually got the shape of the cup right. Ta da..