Although I had started out intending this to be a still life of peaches, I quickly discovered that it was also a ‘white sheet exercise’.  Also, I hadn’t really done reflective metals in watercolours before, so this was a painting that has three different elements in it.

I didn’t know about the white sheet exercise until I took my first oil painting class with Iris Hauser a couple of years ago. One of the first exercises we did in the class was to do a painting of a white sheet that was draped over a chair. Well, if that didn’t teach you about colour and contour, I don’t know what would. It was a great way to start out with oils as I had no idea what they did, never having worked with them.

I have also done a couple of pieces in oils that have metal objects in them and found that they are much like the white sheet exercise – looking at the blocks of colour that make up the reflections on metal.

I wanted to get back to doing some watercolours and with peaches in season, it was just the right time. Peaches have such great colour and texture, and I knew it would be a challenge to get that soft fuzziness in watercolour. So I blithely set up the still life with a silver bowl, antique fruit knife and fork, on a white cloth.

Well, the white sheet is a lot harder in watercolour. I have reached the stage in the painting where I am going to put it up on the wall for a while and see what needs to be done. I am sure there will be more needed in the shadows of the cloth, and the shadows in general – always an area I need to work on with watercolour. I use transparent watercolours, so I can layer a lot without getting mud, which helps.

The silver seems to have worked more or less, and the peaches are okay too. So it is going to ‘proof’ for a while, and as I look at it over the next while, will make notes of things to work on a bit more. It is mostly done though and I am reasonably happy with it, particularly after having been away from doing any watercolour for such a long time.

Well, I just bought some nice fresh, ripe figs, so am going to do something with them, as well as eating them that is!