Tea With Lemon?

11x14 inches, oil on canvas board

painted for the Inspiration All Around Us challenge

I have painting pretty darned fast lately because I have been participating in several online art challenges, with the idea that I will write an article for a regional art magazine.  Painting fast is a new thing for me, the former perfectionist, now going for quantity and hoping that all the practice will pay off.  I actually think it is.  For years, when I was teaching. I'd get a couple things done every month or two, and spend so much time slaving over them that I couldn't possibly let them go.  My sketch books were labored and perspired over too, hoarded, saved, left half empty.  No more.  I am cranking things out.  And guess what? I'm feeling pretty good about the results.

This little still life was painted for a challenge at the Inspiration All around Us blog.  The original teapot was shorter, and it had some sort of flowers or berries stuck in the spout, but they did not speak to me, so they were edited right out.  I am not wildly happy about the sort of orangy/beigy surface in the painting, but the blue under painting saves it from being too blah, or too similar to the lemons.  What attracted me to the reference photo was the strong light reflection on the fruit, and I think that shows in the final painting.

I'd probably be more critical in the dark cold days of winter, but spring has sprung here in southern Wisconsin, and people are outside in their yards, taking walks, riding bicycles. Daffodils are blooming and the robins are going wild in the flower bed.  I won't even say what the rabbits are up to.  In short, I am feeling happy and looking forward to longer warmer days.  I even went out and got some pots of pansies.  They go in clay pots that can be taken into the garage.  Sometimes it snows in April in these parts.