I should probably tell you up front: This one-of-a-kind watercolour still life painting I just finished, Early Figs in a Blue and White Bowl, is sold already. An eNews bold soul got the ‘first dibs’ email and snapped it right up for their happy home. Sign up for yourself to get early bird news next time.
Here, for the record, are some of the steps that led to the pictures completion, starting with a bowl of fresh juicy figs, the early ‘white’ (pale green) variety. I found my favourite drawing nib just in time, and began with a sheet of textured watercolour paper.
One of the lovely things about making still life art is the chance to appreciate produce in a way other than just eating the (in this case) figs! Despite my low FODMAPs food needs, the sweet scent of ripening figs was enjoyable in itself while translating their luscious abundance into line and colour. The complicated blue bowl kept me alert!
My favourite time to paint produce is when it’s ripe and brightly coloured. In that surprisingly short window I was compelled to progress the picture daily because I wanted to capture the ripe colour in time. You can see in the photo below, the figs in the bowl are starting to go beyond their ‘best’!
Light and happiness flowed into the final picture. I hope you enjoyed seeing this process and finished painting :)
I don’t know how I’m keeping Oz Comic-Con – enter here for weekend family pass tickets! – in my head with all the fruit and patterns, but somehow it’s all just compatible with each other, and I’m looking forward to one while working on the other! Exciting!
Talk soon,
Love Meg x o
PS Follow me on facebook or Instagram to follow what I’m painting next (hint: it’s yellow produce)!
PS3 Half price for eNews subscribers on the last of the 2017 calendars – the Happy To Be Here theme has a strong collection of produce, flowers, bold women and cat art! If that’s of interest to you, sign up now – the 50% off coupon code goes out with the blog post round up tomorrow morning! (Haha, if you’re reading this in the emailed blog post round up – how meta! – scroll to the bottom of the email and the code is beside my ‘sign off’ picture.)
PS3 If you have a sparkle spare, send some love over for Captain Whitepaws.
PS4 Early Figs in Blue and White Bowl is available as digital fine art print.