Sejuiced

Along with sunlight through a breaking wave, painted light emerging from citrus fruit is something I’ve often admired – when well executed by others, but have never taken the time to have a go at it for myself - until now, when my current explorations with still life provided the opportunity to give it a try.

I confess that seeing exceptional examples by other artists has proved daunting enough to dissuade me from taking up the challenge myself. What’s the worst that could happen?

I’ve seen some examples where the fruit has been indecorously hacked at to provide the best capture and transmission of light. To my mind, that’s messy and wasteful, with juice leaking out of the subject and the fruit naturally drying out during the painting process.

I don’t like waste. I can confirm that these two oranges were consumed immediately after completion of the painting.

In making this painting, despite its small size of about 8"x12", I wanted to use plenty of paint and not become overly concerned with details, which felt right.

I found the final result most satisfactory - I hope you do too.