Green Apple Painting

I documented the painting of this green apple…

Painting hasn’t been part of my normal body of work.  It’s not that I don’t like painting fruit or vegetables, it’s just that’s not the direction my career went… at least not in the past 5 years or so.  But every once and a while I do go outside my comfort zone, or marketing zone if you will, and do something different. 

So I decided to paint a piece of fruit.  Not straying too far from my usual compositions, I went with a simple composition consisting of a single green apple.  Placed in the middle of the composition it really wasn’t too difficult to set up as you might imagine.

Why an Apple?

The real impetus of this painting was in its documentation.

I use this oil painting as a teaching tool for my private painting students.  These are students located around the world and want to study oil painting at a high level.

The true is, color can be measured and that’s precisely what I teach.  I teach students how to see color and to mix it.  This can be done with no guesswork, but rather great precision.

I started this painting on a gray surface like I do most of my paintings.  It’s really nice working on a gray-toned painting surface.  Since I am starting with a mid-value it’s not too far of a stretch to achieve both extremities (near-white values & near-black values) with a single layer of paint.

Which leads me to my next thought…

My Structured Approach

This little apple painting is pretty much a single layer of oil paint.  I guess you could even consider it an “alla prima”.  While most alla prima paintings are known to be very loose and contain exaggerated colors this is not the only way to paint.

Because I am taking the time to measure the colors and not rushing the process I am able to represent the subject matter with accurate colors with a single layer of paint!  This is possible even with beginners as long as they learn to measure and mix colors correctly.  Like accounting or grammar, this can be quantified and learned. Just looking at a color wheel and watching a few youtube videos on painting is not enough.

Interested in learning how to do this?

Hop on my mailing list and every so often I take on new painting students. There’s a link on my about page to join the mailing list.  You can be located anywhere in the world, I teach live-in-real-time, but right through my computer now!  It’s awesome.