Day 9 of the Strada Challenge
Peek-a-Boo, 8″ x 6″, pastel
I visited a friend’s yard today after hearing that her grapes were ripening. I thought that it would be a fun challenge to try and capture the little blue orbs hanging from their vines.
As always, it is a race against time and the movement of the sun. I didn’t even do a preliminary sketch to save time. I took a photo when I started so that I could use it for reference. I painted the grapes and leaves as I saw them in front of me but used the photo to make sure I didn’t stray from the light and shadows as I first put them down. I moved pretty quickly and spent about an hour and a half at the easel.
The little study needs more work but I felt I caught the essence of the sunlit vines and the reflected greens on the blue-purple grapes in shadow and the warmth of those in the light.
In the photo of the easel, you can see the bunch of grapes in the upper left corner. The lower bunch were my models although I was painting them from a slightly different angle than this photo. You can see that the sun had moved significantly from when I started.
©Francesca Droll, Peek-a-Boo setup
