A-Z Fruits and Vegetables
Throughout 2018, I plan to paint either a fruit or vegetable to represent each letter of the alphabet. The idea came from fellow Spoonflower designer, Brenda Zapotosky. My paintings will all be 8"x8" oil on canvas. Sometimes, as in the case of the carrot paintings, I'll paint two for one letter! I hope to post an update here every 2 weeks. You can also follow my Instagram feed or follow #2018fruitandveggieartchallenge to see what other people are creating with this theme.
January 2019 - I finished! I set a few rules for myself when I started this project. I wanted to have the actual fruit or vegetable in hand, I wanted all of the compositions to be square and cropped and I wanted them to be oil on canvas. My self-imposed rules were pretty easy to stick to. I really enjoyed creating the compositions and working with oils. Having the actual fruit/vegetable in hand proved to be a challenge though. Dragon Fruit, Kohlrabi, Quince and Ugli Fruit were not in season when it was time to paint those letters so I occasionally needed to skip a letter and go back to it.
When I look at them collectively, I can see how my painting style changed throughout the year. I love so many of them but my favorites are the Avocados, Beets, Eggplant, Leeks, Mushrooms, Onion (red), Papaya, Quince, Radish and Xigua (Watermelon). I had so much fun painting the Carrots that I painted two versions. I thought that I would maybe do that again with another letter but time never allowed for that. There are only two that I would do differently. I would like to redo the Nectarine composition and I wish that I had sliced the Watermelon Radish thinner so that the slices would have been more transparent. Every time I pick up a paintbrush I learn something new and this little A-Z project taught me a lot. It was a great year long project.
January 2019 - I finished! I set a few rules for myself when I started this project. I wanted to have the actual fruit or vegetable in hand, I wanted all of the compositions to be square and cropped and I wanted them to be oil on canvas. My self-imposed rules were pretty easy to stick to. I really enjoyed creating the compositions and working with oils. Having the actual fruit/vegetable in hand proved to be a challenge though. Dragon Fruit, Kohlrabi, Quince and Ugli Fruit were not in season when it was time to paint those letters so I occasionally needed to skip a letter and go back to it.
When I look at them collectively, I can see how my painting style changed throughout the year. I love so many of them but my favorites are the Avocados, Beets, Eggplant, Leeks, Mushrooms, Onion (red), Papaya, Quince, Radish and Xigua (Watermelon). I had so much fun painting the Carrots that I painted two versions. I thought that I would maybe do that again with another letter but time never allowed for that. There are only two that I would do differently. I would like to redo the Nectarine composition and I wish that I had sliced the Watermelon Radish thinner so that the slices would have been more transparent. Every time I pick up a paintbrush I learn something new and this little A-Z project taught me a lot. It was a great year long project.
