"Arance, Oranges" Finished

I should never say what I'm going to do the next day -- because inevitably I change my mind. Yesterday, I decided to finish this painting of oranges from a Florence, Italy market. (Instead of writing the post I told you I'd do the day before.) I thought that finishing "Arance" meant filling in the blank areas, that much of it was complete as is. But no. I worked on just about every inch in a 12 hour painting marathon. A little lunch. A very, very late dinner. At least I'm thinner.

I wanted to finish this one for a competition application that needed to go in the mail. So, after I painted it, I photographed it, downloaded that to my desktop computer, burned a CD, filled out my application, got it ready to mail. Read and answered email. Ate dinner. Life as an Artist, epitomized.

"Arance, Oranges", 24"h x 36"w, oil on Senso linen, copyright Jill Banks 2009. This is the latest painting in my market series. See more on my web site and on this blog by clicking on older posts.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435

Paintings of Fruit Continued...

I spent the whole day painting fruit.



This afternoon ... I was buried in oranges, continuing on with "Arance, Oranges", a painting of a fruit market in Florence, Italy. Still more to go but when I finally needed a break from oranges I headed downstairs to work a bit on "An Apple Arrangement". In all, I've spent very little time on the latter, trying not to interfere with the official enrollees in Michela Mansuino's workshop (who work late) and keeping on track with my other projects. This particular painting shows just how abstractly I see ... and paint. I think in value (light and darks) and then color blocks, from large to increasingly smaller shapes. It's an interesting way to see the world.



"Arance, Orange" work in progress, 24"h x 36"w, oil on Senso linen, copyright Jill Banks 2009.
"An Apple Arrangement" work in progress, 24"h x 30"w, oil on Senso linen, copyright Jill Banks 2009.

Before Randy took me to dinner tonight he wiped off yellow, then green, then orange, then some red I'd managed to end up wearing.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435

"Arance, Oranges" Painting Continued

This shows Day 4 on my "Arance, Oranges" painting of a Florence, Italy fruit market. I'm working on adding a three-dimensional feel to the fruits. I've already gotten the comment (many times) that viewers think they can just reach in there and pick up the fruit. When I'm done, I'll think I can do that. My goal is to achieve that with as little detail as possible -- making you do some of the work in grasping the scene.

One of my favorite parts of these market scenes are the signs. Signs of people, the human touch, the artistry of the market folks. See more of my market scenes on this blog (look back through older posts) and on my web site.

Registrations are going on now for Fall 2009 classes at the Great Falls School of Art (part of the Great Falls Foundation for the Arts). My Monday night drawing class and Tuesday morning painting classes are now full. I'm still considering adding a third class on Tuesday afternoons, 2:15-5:15 pm if there's enough interest. That class would start Tuesday, September 15 and run for nine weeks. Email me at jillbanks1@aol.com or call 703.403.7435 if you're interested.

This is the last week to view my "On the Bright Side" solo show at the Great Falls Library, 9830 Georgetown Pike, Great Falls, VA (comes down August 31) and works in the "Still Life Poetry" show at ArtSpace Herndon, 750 Center Street, Herndon, VA (comes down August 30). See my web site for more details.

"Arance, Oranges" work in progress, oil, 24"h x 36"w, copyright Jill Banks 2009.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435