DlmtleArt

Last night I went to a really great women’s meeting at my church. It was to celebrate the birthday of Relief Society which was organized in 1842.

One of the activities was to paint a 5×5 canvas. The teacher had prepared a demonstration on how to paint a lemon with “When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade”on it. Some of us decided to paint something else. Since one of the ladies asked me how to paint an apple, I decided I would paint one too and try to talk her through it. I don’t think I do a good job of explaining and painting at the same time because she gave up and went to a different activity.

Anyway I think It turned out pretty well so I thought I’d post it here. The canvas was already primed, so I started out with a coat of purple paint. Purple is one of my favorite colors, and I also thought it would complement the apple’s red color nicely. Next I added a red apple shape and began adding the highlights and shadows. It needed to dry for awhile before I could go any further with the apple so I laid in the green foreground–being careful to let some of the purple underpainting show through.

Next I added the white apple blossoms and put in a little light yellow highlights and some purple shadows.Adding the branch and apple stem next. It was to wet to do any fine tuning on the blossoms, So I went back to work on the apple deepening the shadows and brightening some of the highlights. Adding the shadows beneath the apple and blossoms was next, using a mixture of purple and a touch of black. Normally I would just use a bluer shade of purple but I did not have a dark enough blue available for that. Then It was time to dry brush the final highlights and shadows on the apple and retouch the blossoms. The background needed a bit more life and brightened up a bit. Adding a light behind the apple and fading it out really made the apple “pop.” At first I put too much yellow in it, so I lifted it out with a damp napkin and reapplied a lighter shade, and then dabbed it again to create a slightly mottled effect. Before signing it I added a few touches of red around the edges and softened it with the napkin as well.

I did get frustrated with it at times because acrylic is not a medium I use frequently and I also did not have my good brushes with me. working with larger brushes is a good learning experience though. It is a good idea to try new things an push outside of our comfort zones. You might just like the results ( when frustrated I find it helpful to get up and walk around the room and come back to it a few minutes later with fresh eyes.) I think I’ll try this exercise again . It’s fairly inexpensive since canvases this size can be found in the dollar section at Michael’s