'All Things Southern' Feature: "Just Peachy"

"Just Peachy"

16"x12"

Oil on Panel

 

What do peaches & barbecue have in common?  Rivalry!  (Oh, yeah, and they're both delicious!)

Just say your state has the best and watch it fly!

 

So, we all know Georgia is the Peach State and in Atlanta on New Year's Eve "The Peach Drop" rings in the new year.  Did you know South Carolina - according to an article I read - is nudging Georgia out in peach production?  Here in Alabama our claim to "peach fame" resides in Chilton County.  Stop by Durbin Farms or Peach Park on your way up or down I-65 and grab a basket...or a peach milkshake!

 

We just love them down here....peach cobbler, peach ice cream or sliced and tossed in a salad.  Then there's the peach festival where Miss Peach is crowned, and Miss Junior Peach, and Little Miss Peach, and Real Little Miss Peach....and... 

 

I find them really hard to paint because the skin is sort of mottled and ranges from yellow-green, to bright yellow, to orange, to reddish-pink, to purply (Purply is too a word!)  Then you also have the 'peach fuzz' issue which gives a lavender gray highlight to some areas.  If you put too much highlight they can look glossy like an apple and then, boom, you've lost your peach.  It's been a subject for many artists including some of my favorites Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Van Gogh.  Sure would have been nice to run into one of these guys at Peach Park so I could ask them how they handled it! :)

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please click here for information:
http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1247065/just-peachy
Thanks for looking!

Sunflower Steps

I thought it might be fun to record a painting in progress, so here's a step-by-step of this sunflower & peaches still life.  If I was really smart, I'd do a video!  Maybe one day! :)
*SOLD*

Day 7/30: "Peaches & Hydrangeas" *SOLD*

"Peaches & Hydrangeas" *SOLD*

14"x11"

Oil on Board   $400

 

 

Today completes the first week of the 30 Paintings Challenge.  It has truly been motivating...especially when you add being sick with a cold? flu? in the mix!  

I'm really enjoying it and it has been fun at the end of the day to visit Leslie Saeta's blog, "Slices of Life", and check out what all the other participating artists have done.  I imagine them all working away in their studios just like me.  I wonder if they are having the same issues with 'blogger' that I am.  Still having issues with uploading photos...that's one reason this one is so BIG! 

 

Today's painting was done from photos I took this past summer at the Montgomery Curb Market, one of my favorite subjects.  Although I usually paint figures perusing the farmers' wares, sometimes I like to paint the produce and flowers.  Next month, I'll have work in the Trinity School Spotlight on Art in Atlanta and thought peaches might be a good subject for this event.

 

Looking forward to what the next few weeks bring to the easel!

Summer Still Life *SOLD*

Aaaahhhh....summer and its simple pleasures! Trips to the curb market, peaches and zinnias....