After yesterdays experimentation with my new gouache set, I was eager to get some more practice in today. Since the set is summer colors and I love pears, I looked through my photos from the city’s garden tour from last summer. I remembered I had taken several pictures of a pear tree in one of the tour’s yards.

When I took the photos, apparently I decided to take them all off center, so I didn’t have any without part of the pear cut off. This was the photo that I chose to use, but I sketched it with the pear fully in the page. I then went about adding the background first and then the pear and leaves. I still used more water than I think is typical for gouache, but I like how it turned out. This one might be nice enough to keep. I really liked how the reds and oranges in the pear turned out. The colors layered nicely without getting muddy, even when I was impatient and didn’t wait for it to dry completely.

I worked on this painting during our art club’s Zoom with June session. We meet online on Friday mornings and paint and chat from the comfort of our home studios. My “studio” is a tv tray in the living room, but it works. I find participating in the Zooms a rewarding and inspiring practice. I credit them with really kickstarting my regular painting practice. If not for these Zooms, this blog would probably not exist.

Is there a practice you engage in that helps to keep you creating art regularly?