First time for everything right? My latest oil pastel painting Lemon Gathering has a few firsts for me – 1st time painting lemons and a glass bowl.
Lemon Gathering (8×8) was painted on Mi-Teintes cream tinted pastel paper using Sennelier oil pastels and several Holbeins. Look at a lemon long enough and a variety of colors begin to show themselves, so while the foundation of the lemons are yellow I decided to dramatize this piece a bit and intensify the colors. Brighter than what I normally paint, but it fit the vision I had for the painting.
A wonderful photographer and artist, Lillian Bell from pmp, provided a beautiful photograph as the reference image for this painting – although used as inspiration, much was changed from the original source.
Oil Pastels by Mary 
great picture!
Thanks absengeralois!
Well done, Mary!! I love the lemons and the bright colors. Must’ve been a challenge to paint glass, but it looks great
Thanks Calee!!
speaking from a little experience, painting glass is incredibly difficult. the reflections in the bowl are so perfectly detailed, and a nice compliment to the knobby lemons. bravo, Mary!
Thank you for your nice comment and assessment – I like your descriptions, perfect “knobby lemons!”
Gorgeous, Mary! I love that touch of dark orange/brown on the lemons. Simply brilliant!
Thank you very much Francesca!
Glass is endlessly fascinating…not only is it reflective, like metals and polished or wet objects, but it is transparent/translucent at the same time. Good job!
Hi Cynthia, thanks – I agree how fascinating glass is, for me it’s also intimidating, so this painting gave me a good challenge and lesson. It was that old artist saying, paint what you see – not what you think is there. I had to keep reminding myself, that the surface was a smooth as silk and yet had all those qualities you mention, so that the end piece didn’t look choppy.
Well, you’ve got both the lemons AND the glass:) I especially love the glass. Less is often more in rendering great glass, and you’ve got it!
Thanks Elena. There were a few scrape downs with the glass – you are right, it was really easy to overdo it. I learned a lot about glass with this piece.
So refreshing Mary ! Something about lemons always makes the mouth water Lol
Would never have guessed it was a first for you ! The translucency of the bowl you have caught perfectly … how marvellous 🙂
Thank you Poppy – the sight of lemons do, don’t they? Thank you for mentioning the bowl, I learned a lot about painting glass with this piece because the reflections and glare are so different than a straight-lined vase.
A wonderful splash of colour!
Thank you very much!
Wonderful work! I really like it a lot. 🙂
Hi Jackie, thanks very much!
That is amazing – the unexpected ability to see through glass in a painting. Great work Mary! 🙂
Dorann, thank you so much – really appreciate hearing from you. The glass was interesting and I want to paint another soon to keep working on the technique. I just noticed yesterday for some reason my follow on your blog was shut off – can’t understand it, but I have been wondering why you weren’t posting to your blog (ha, little did I know).
Oh, well done with the glass bowl. Lemons are lovely too, and, of course, I am always happy when I see blue anywhere.
Thanks so much for your nice comments and noticing the glass bowl. The blue was chosen because the original had a cream colored tablecloth and I didn’t have that “ah” factor I was looking for – I love playing up blue.
I think you did a fabulous job Mary! I love the color palette!
Thanks Rhonda! More vibrant than my usual, but it seemed to fit – thanks again.
Great, Mary!!! 🙂
Thank you!
Beautifully radiant lemons, Mary!!! 🙂 xx
Thank you Marina – appreciate your nice comment! Hope you are having a wonderful evening, the week is half-over.
Love the contrasts and texture in this piece.
Hi Lulu, thank you for your nice comments. I painted on the more-textured side of the pastel paper – hoping that the texture would work with the lemons. Thanks for mentioning!
Great 1st!!!! Mary.
Thanks Patricia!
I love the bowl! some day I hope to get good at shading 🙂
Thanks Eunice for mentioning the bowl that was the real test for me with this piece. Figures out it was all about values, and smooth-smooth patches of reflective colors. I should probably do several more crystal bowls and vases to gain more confidence.
You did it wonderfully I am starting small on dew and raindrops 🙂
Wonderful job on these lemons. I love the bright colors. Isn’t it amazing when we really look at something and like you did with the lemons, see so many colors? I find that all the time I look, but I don’t see.
Thanks Kerry! Most any fruit is like that for me – a kaleidoscope of colors then I have to choose, LOL! Thank you again ~