Rhode Island, reds

fruit tartlet, 4×6in, acrylic on panel

these 3 studies in red are…uhh…fresh off the vine. well, freshly varnished.

i’m still fightin reds – and, armed with a lighter touch & a more vibrant palette, i lost the first few rounds to the cartoonish colors of the tartlet, the soft velvet of the raspberry cake, and the deep deep gloss of the berry.

mini raspberry cake, 4×6in, acrylic on panel

the colors were pure enough, but also to the point of feeling local and unrelated. out of frustration, in spite of the unresolved paintings, i ate my reference and turned the works to the wall to cool their heels.

when i finally came back to them, i decided to work from memory – after all, wasn’t the point of the studies to improve my hand and eye for the imagined bulls and landscapes?

strawberry, 4×6in, acrylic on panel

i’m happy with the results – even if they may lack some of the immediacy and swashbuckling strokes of the ‘from life’ works.

We’re back at the Charlestown Gallery for our second season and the freshly-varnished trio is part of a passel of ‘food paintings’ i’ve just dropped off. we’ll even be showing some of the bulls and farm stuff later on this summer.

The gallery’s in South County, Rhody’s bread basket – if you’re looking for something else to do in the ‘hood, the URI Farmers’ Market takes place ’bout 10 minutes up the road on saturday mornings.

2183 Matunuck Schoolhouse Road,
P.O.Box 1367,
Charlestown, Rhode Island
401-364-0120 :: www.charlestowngalleryri.com