Lemons - Lesson in Scale

I am always up for painting lemons!  I love the flavor, the color and the appearance.....I guess they are a bit of a comfort fruit for me.  Sometime last year, I had an "aha" moment regarding scale.  As a longtime portrait and figurative painter, I seemed to have an innate sense about the human proportion and disliked the shapes that appeared too large, too monstrous.  (Likewise, and even more so, I disliked all objects that seemed just too small, even if well painted.)I think that this predisposition carried over into all subject matter.  Most of my still life works featured objects that were either life-sized or slightly smaller...and from a frontal viewpoint.  That seemed correct to me.  And, yet, I always admired dynamic larger works and those that featured objects from a bird's eye viewpoint.  And so I grew.....and came to challenge my notion of scale.  This time around, I took on a work that features lemons, both larger than life-size and from an aerial view.  I think that the white tray functions as a background or negative space.  The result, to me, was a simpler more dynamic work.  I pushed several of my former limitations here and I am thrilled!  Growth and evolution is part of the artistic process.  It is exciting to venture out and to grow.

Glory Be to Limoncello!...

August Limoncello   oil/canvas   20 x 10 x 1.5

Soothing essence of lemon.  My first encounter with Limoncello was the lemonade beverage offered by The Olive Garden.  Heaven.  A bit too sweet but I replicated this beverage at home.  Limoncello desserts followed.  But still I was in quest of a simpler way to drink it.  My friend and colleague Judy Carducci sips hers on warm European evenings at the end of the art day.  She keeps hers in the freezer where it takes on a freezy syrupy quality.  This summer my usual gin and tonic was replaced by a limoncello and tonic served over crushed ice.  Fabulous.  Quenching.  The perfect refresher at the end of a hot summer day.  Piquant.  New.

"August Limoncello" is the painted ode.

I need more lemons!

Lemony   oil/canvas   6 x 6 x 1.25

Things are heating up here in northeast Ohio.....temperature predicted in the 90's all week with high humidity.  Our home is not air-conditioned.  Whew!  I find lemons to be a refreshing remedy to cool, to hydrate and to enjoy.....lemons in water, lemonade mixed with beer, lemon desserts and lemons to look at.  Beautiful!  It would make for good writing if I said that I am cooler already just thinking about lemons.  It's not true.

But it's the thought that counts.