Painting Pomegranates

For The New Year

Do you know, pomegranates symbolize fertility and abundance?

They are one of the oldest fruits known to man.

Each pomegranate has exactly 840 seeds....really?

A pomegranate is actually a berry.

The syrup made from pomegranates is called grenadine.

It seems fitting to be sketching a painting pomegranates as we enter a new year.  

Wishes for abundance to all.

The Weather Outside is Frightful...

But The Fire Is So Delightful

And since we've no place to go,

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Some of us can only hope for snow.

Indifferent Majesty

48" x 30"

$ 2000

A few more hours at the work table to complete a couple little gifts.

Working with Pearls...

Then three days of family, friends and the joy of the season before heading back to the easel.

Time Lost and Found...

It is the Season

The busy season.  No time to get everything done.  Frantic behavior seems to surround us.

So stop, take a deep breath, look out the window, smile, stretch, turn off your computer. And don’t clean the house.  Get back to creating or what ever else it is that you love to do.   That’s what it takes to create the rich life you deserve.

Sketching for A Commission

And Getting the General Idea on Paper First

I took some time to get a bit of exercise on a rainy day in the desert, so it was into the gym and onto the exercise bike.  Not my favorite way to exercise.  I'd rather be outside where I can look around and see everything there is to see, but it was raining, and while I know I won't melt in the rain, it just seemed more expedient to go inside today.  

Sitting next to me was a friend who asked about my palm painting and my preparation for a commission.  " Do you make notes as well as drawings?" was her question.

Yes Yes Yes....I do.  Not always detailed notes because so much of what an artist does to create is carried around in the head.  And sometimes those notes become obsolete during the process as changes are made, so mine are fairly brief.

This discussion with my cycling buddy made me think you might like to see a few pages from my sketch book, with the notes.  I get the general composition with positive and negative space delineated in the sketches, the palette recorded in the notes, always the date, and any other thoughts I think are pertinent to the process.  It is all very general in the sketch book.

More Palm Tree Painting

It's Still Cold In The Desert

And I am still painting palms, looking at palms, sketching palms.  It's not only palm-mania in my studio but that is all I see right now....everywhere I look.

They are statuesque trees.  

I even went to see a film called 'The Sex Life of the Date Palm'.

It's about time to complete this palm study and start sketching for the commissioned work.

Yes, It's December...

And I am Painting Palms

This is a work in progress and is incomplete.

Lucky I am.  I have a list of commissions.  One of these is for a large acrylic on canvas palm tree painting and since I have always painted my palms in watercolor, I am working on a 'sample' canvas, pictured above.

Date Palm II

30" x 22"

Watercolor on Paper

 I want to make sure the customer and I are on the same page, so to speak.  They have seen my watercolors of palms and the giclee prints of these watercolors blown up to huge scale, but they wanted an original.  I suggested an acrylic on gallery wrap canvas and it was agreed.  So even though it is December and everywhere you look you see evergreens, in my studio it's all about palms.