Clementine Sements. Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

Well I have only just stated doing some more painting I hadn't done any since just after Christmas. Actually I did this painting over Christmas so it's been in my studio for some time waiting for me to get back into the paintings and carry on with my blog.

Actually the main reason I haven't been doing so much painting lately is I have decided to change my strategy a bit and have been busy with another project. One reason I started this daily painting blog was to also sell my daily paintings on eBay. Unfortunately this didn't really take off. So given I was just wasting money on listing fees and given it can be difficult to get a realisitic price for paintings on eBay in any case. I thought there had to be a better way.

So instead of listing my original paintings on eBay I now scan them and make them into various products on Cafepress and Zazzle :) Actually I found the new Zazzle site good because unlike Cafepress they offer you a free shop and don't restrict the number of designs per product so basically you can make products from everything. So amongst other things I have made all these new products with designs based on many of my daily paintings
http://www.zazzle.com/artberry/search/painting

Clementine (02) 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

This is a painting of a peeled Clementine. I put it on some green sugar paper when I originally photographed it and I think this makes a nice colour contrast with the orange.

I thought this was an interesting fact about Clementines which although they have been available in Europe for many years were only recently introduced into the US since 1997 according to Wikipedia which might also provide a clue as to why the bees are dying.

"Clementines lose their desirable seedless characteristic when bees cross-pollinate them with other fruit. In early 2006 large growers such as Paramount Citrus in California threatened to sue local bee keepers for their bees' trespass into Clementine crop land."

So there you have it could a gang of demented psycho Californian Clementine growers be killing the bees? Who knows? But if people will go to the lengths of attempting to sue Bee keepers for allowing their bees to wander onto there land it is clear that some farmers regard bees as a pest and could very well be killing them. So rather than chemtrails the explanation for the bee problem could be far more mundane. Well it's a thought.

Clementine (01) 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

I bought some Clementines . Of course Clementines are associated with Christmas so I suppose this must because they are in season, and Wikipedia says they are sometimes called the Christmas Orange because they are available from November to January.

Apples and Pears Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

Eight Fruits. Oil on Board. 4.5ins x 6.5ins.

I thought these apples looked so nice all lined up in their box. The label (right) said "8 Fruits" So what better title for the painting. It also says they are Golden Delicious and come from Italy. I didn't used to like the Golden Delicious and probably wouldn't have bought these if I had been able to decipher the label in the shop, but actually these apples were quite nice and made a nice subject for a still-life.

Yellow Pepper 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

This painting took me a little longer than usual. I wanted to capture the yellow in all it's glory. I found the only way to do that was to do an underpainting and do a couple of layers before I could get the yellow to sing. I think I got there in the end :)

Green Apples, 6 ins x 4.5ins Oil on board

This is a little still-life of some green apples which I did the other week. I quite like the storks on these apples, and the way they kind of stick out in different directions according to the way they were hanging on the tree.

Red, Yellow and Green Peppers 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

I have been trying to paint more exotic fruits or vegetables but I had kind of forgotten peppers. Probably because I don't really consider them particularly exotic. In saying that there was a time when I was a child when they didn't seem to be readily available. Mind my parents were brought up in the war so probably didn't know what they were. Actually they do look interesting as fruits go. I often like some slices of peppers in my melted cheese and Salami toasted sandwiches. Makes it taste like Pizza. Yum :)

Pears. 4.5ins x 6ins, Oil on Board

I did this painting of pears last week, it took a little longer than I had expected. Actually it's surprising how challenging pears are to paint if you want to get all the detail of their texture in.

I don't buy pears very often, but one thing I did learn is they seem to taste best when they look like they are beginning to go over, so you can leave them a week before eating them at which point they go beautifully soft sweet and juicy and seem to have tons of flavour, whereas if you eat them too early they often seem not to have much taste. So one can afford to take a bit of extra time with a still-life painting and still enjoy the pear at it's best. :)

Pink Ladies II. 4.5" x 6". Oil on Board

This is another version of the Pink Lady apples.

This painting is 4½ins x 6ins and painted Oil on board.

Aubergine. Oil on Canvas 7ins x 5ins

This is a painting of an aubergine, or egg fruit (as I think they may be called in the US) which I bought in the supermarket in order to paint and then eat. I think aubergines are a beautiful fruit, at least to look at. However having tried to eat this aubergine after I painted it, I can't say I'm a big aubergine fan.

That said I've had them in Ratatouille before now and I like Ratatouille. Maybe next time I buy them I should make a Ratatouille. Since cooking it in the Micro, with some cheese and Salami didn't really work for me. LOL :)

Actually according to this BBC Food article they originated in India and although popular in the Mediterranean countries today they took a while to catch on in Europe apparently because they belong to the same family that includes deadly Nightshade, but actually this also applies to potatoes and tomatoes, and because people also thought eating them could cause madness.

This painting is 7ins x 5ins and is painted on a little gallery wrapped stretched canvas.

A Fruit Called Exotic Susan. 4ins x 6ins, Oil on board

This is a painting of a strange looking fruit I bought in my local supermarket (a branch of Lidl) where I got the impression, although I now wonder perhaps mistaken, that it was called an "Exotic Susan". However after doing an Internet search and finding no examples of any fruits called "Exotic Susan" and wondering if I had painted and subsequently eaten the Worlds only example of a fruit called Exotic Susan. Well to cut a long story short I eventually identified it as a Persimmon. Actually I think I prefer the title "A fruit called Exotic Susan".

They say Persimmons can be somewhat astringent when they are under-ripe and this often puts people off them for life. However I'm glad to say this persimmon was very nice it was quite soft and kind of felt like a tomato to the touch. This seems to be the best time to eat them from what I have read and own experience :)

Well I'll certainly buy them again, although they do seem to be quite expensive in the UK, well this one was 49p (about 1 USD) and Lidl is a cheap Supermarket, I dare say one would need a mortgage to buy a Persimmon in Sainsburys or M&S.

Avocado

This is the avocado I bought to paint last week. I'd never bought an avocado before, well I suppose I must have had it in things in the past, but I didn't know what to expect. It was more brown by the time I cut it open and the inside was soft smooth and buttery. Not a lot of taste on it's own so I opened a tin of Sardines and ate the sardines along with the avocado contents cut into slices. This combination was quite nice. Apparently some people eat them with Soy sauce and they seem to be nice with something a bit salty. I might buy one again I dare say there are various ways of eating an Avocado.

This painting is 4ins x 6ins and is painted oil on board.

Now available as a Greetings Card through Cafepress. Click in card picture or the link below.
http://www.cafepress.com/avocadopear

Peach Halves

This is what I did to one of those peaches before eating it, it was very tasty to :) This painting is 4ins x 6ins and is painted oil on gessoed board.

This week I bought something which I think was called an Exotic Susan Fruit which looks like a sort of yellow tomato but with a larger stem star than a tomato. I don't think I have seen one these before and can't find it on the Internet. It's probably one of these fruits that has different names depending on the part of the World one is from. Anyway I shall probably do a painting of it this week and then eat it.