Silver Sugar Bowl

 Silver Sugar Bowl

6x6, oil

Day 8 Strada Easel Challenge

Once again focusing on reflective surfaces in a super small still life. I purchased this little silver sugar bowl (I think it’s a sugar bowl) in Arizona.  I considered polishing it up before painting it, but the greenish patina was kind of charming. I’ll polish it later and paint it again.

Silver and Fuji

 Silver and Fuji

6x6, oil

Day 7 Strada Easel Challenge

Continuing with still life using a little wooden box...this time again, setting it up on top of the box to accommodate the bowl of fruit and focusing more on adding color.  I just love painting reflections. 😊

Maddie's Bowl of Lemons

Maddie's Bowl of Lemons

6x6, soft pastel

I've owned this bowl of lemons for years (yes, they are fake lemons).   Over the years, setting "fake fruit" out in a bowl as part of a savvy decor item became passé.   So of course, I eventually quarantined my beautiful fake fruit to the pantry where they've sat gathering dust for many years.  I've discarded or "donated" most of the fruit except the lemons.   

These three lemons are actually priceless to me.  Not because they are realistic (which they are).  But they're priceless because one day, when my adorable grand-daughter Maddie was quite small (probably 1 1/2 yrs. old), she climbed up onto the breakfast table when I wasn't looking and decided she'd help herself to a lemon...or two.  I imagine she was quite surprised when she tried to bite into a couple of them without success.  If you look closely you can actually see the teeth marks she left behind.  Oh, Maddie...you still make me smile!!!

Top Shelf

Top Shelf

6x6, Soft Pastel

This is a painting I've been wanting to do for quite awhile...and I'm not sure it turned out as well as I'd like...but, that's the way it goes sometimes.  Painting it larger might help...or giving myself more time than I did (this one was done on the same day as the green grapes...so I was a bit pooped by the end of the day).  I continue to paint things halfway between Impressionism and Realism (not really sure what to call that...Cindyism I guess). 

Jumped Ship

Jumped Ship

6x6, soft pastel

Day 2 of the 30in30 Challenge is a still life with three of my garden tomatoes.  My tomatoes are typically imperfect in appearance but otherwise delicious.  The larger one kept falling out of the too small bowl I selected and dropped to the floor on more than one occasion.   So I left it on the tabletop (which proved to be a better composition anyway) and then thought "jumped ship" would be just the right title for this one.