Pear-ing at my canvas – new pear painting
Having spent half the day yesterday stamping, masking, stencilling and gessoing pear shapes as part of the GPP Street Team Crusades, I could not get the pear shape out of my mind. I already knew I would end up taking the shape onto canvas, but what I could not know as I cleaned up my mess last night, was that by the end of today I would have finished 2 16×16 canvas with – yep – pears on them!
With the one shown I started by masking out the words and the pear, then spray painting over the top in orange and purple. I use Plutonium G aerosol spray because it smells nice, has a lovely powdery matte finish and is CFC free so it is good for the environment. And besides, the c0lours have great names like Hot Sauce, Vegan and Manko. I fixed the spray paint, drew in the black lines and let thin black paint dribble down the canvas then added some swipes of thin black at the bottom. As the paint dried I dabbed it here and there with a tissue, taking the paint off again and leaving behind textural highlights.
I underpainted the pear, then re-sprayeed to get rid of some white gaps round the pear from the first spraying. I fixed it again (getting spray in my hair), splashed some black onto the canvas for a bit more texture and added a few more layers onto the pear. When the paint on the pear was nearly dry I scraped back into the paint to get down to the initial layers in some areas – these sort of glow through. Finally, I added some oil pastel here and there on top of the scratchings to really make the highlights sparkle.
For the record, my hands and arms tell the story; I have spray paint, ink, varnish and quite a few colours of acryclic paint on them – and to finish things off nicely, a little oil pastel under my nails!
Really really like this Cath
Melissa
January 11, 2009 at 8:06 pm
waaaaaaaaaaaaaah! it was so fun to read your description as i couldn’t see the image yet (you had me very distracted by the spray paint i’d never heard of) and then it was such a visual treat to see your piece revealed. love that you have so much going on and the drippy stuff has me wild. the pear really pops. i wish you took a picture of your hands and arms as evidence for your journal. i bet the spray paint is still on them
cath – you make me so happy to see you obsess over a shape and trying it on in so many ways with this canvas and your previous studies. squeeeeeeeee!
Michelle Ward
January 12, 2009 at 4:39 am
Cath this is awesome! Really really awesome! Michelle is right, the pear really pops right out of the picture. It really has depth…just amazing!
Julie
January 12, 2009 at 6:47 am
Now this one is breathtaking!! Can’t say it much better than Michelle already has!!!
Hugs!
Elizabeth
Elizabeth
January 13, 2009 at 2:41 am
Love, love, love this! It was absolutely worth the mess! Thank you so much for letting us see this.
mommycraft
January 13, 2009 at 2:50 am
Hi Cath,
I’ve finally found your blog and I’m enjoying it very much. The pear painting is so rich in imagery and compositional strength. I will be back. All the best for the new year!
Gesa
January 13, 2009 at 11:40 am
Hey, this is so cool. I just loves the drips and drops. What a neat idea – you are getting into so many things.
liquoriceallsorts
January 13, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Cath!!
Glorious pear! Love the technique,,,,color & comp!
Babs
January 14, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Now I want some spray paints!
Mel
January 14, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Loved the pear explorations below, and this is just stunning. As said above it really pops, its got such great dynamic quality and looks such fun. I’m dying to check out those spray paints.
denise
January 15, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Cath – you had such fun! I loved the spray paint everywhere and varnish in your hair, but hey! What a fantastic result! I love this canvas… it’s stark and colourful and… yeah, just great!
You need to think about self-portrait photos, before and after though!! ;o)
Rosie
January 16, 2009 at 1:33 am
Hmm, I think I take back what I said before… THIS is my favorite of your pears! To me it’s very graffiti. It does have a lot of Life, and not just from the use of the word
Carrie
January 18, 2009 at 6:53 am
Hi, I’ve just joined Crusade #27 and I found your site from Michelle’s. I want to say that your work is beautiful!
This pear really took my breath away. The other pears are great too-but this one is my FAVE. I am looking forward to my shape studies. This is my first Crusade.
–Jane
I’m putting a link to you on my blog-so I can see your latest.
Jane
January 18, 2009 at 1:16 pm
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!
Julie Prichard
January 20, 2009 at 11:14 am
Awesome. I’m so inspired now to join this challenge; I just need to come up with “my” shape! Only 9 days left.
Anna Matthews
January 23, 2009 at 5:03 am
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