Pucker Power

"Single Lemon"
11 x 11, oil on linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2015
Available

I have recently been working on a series of paintings featuring lemons. You would think that painting a simple thing like a lemon would be a breeze. But you would be wrong! Seeing the correct color for the shadow side of a lemon is very hard for me. Is it greenish, or brownish, or reddish?? Or perhaps blueish, or violet-ish? Most of the time what I am seeing there is not a color that is very intense, so it is not instantly identifiable. At least not most of the time--of course, it depends on the other things nearby.

"Two Lemons"
8 x 12, oil on linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2015
Available

Once I have identified the color, there is the problem of mixing it. Again, hard to do when the color is so subtle. Every little dab of paint can change the mix by pushing it too far in one direction or the other. I was glad to know that I am not alone in this, when I heard Connie Hayes say

that she always struggles to mix a "dark yellow". Amen.

"Lemon Parade"
(c) Carole Marine

Carol Marine set up quite a challenge in the painting above--not only yellow lemons, but also a yellow teapot. Lots of "hot" darks, tending toward red. And notice how smart she was to use the law of simultaneous contrast to her advantage, and surround the yellows with violet!

"Lemons and Stripes"
watercolor, 5 x 8
(c) Peggi Kroll Roberts

Peggi Kroll Roberts also used the violet to great advantage in the picture above. Simple, but lovely.

"Three Lemons on a French Cloth"
7 x 5, oil on board
(c) Julian Merrow-Smith

Painting the light side of the lemon is a breeze by comparison to the shadow side. I think that is because yellow is a hue that is most pure at a very high value (read about the visual phenomenon here).

I am illustrating this post with lemon paintings by some favorite artists. The last one (below) is by Caitlin Winner, new to me and new to this blog. Enjoy!

"Lemons in a White Bowl"
(c) Caitlin Winner