Tomato #159

Cadmium Orange, Sap Green, Dioxazine Purple and White

This is the first in the series, focusing on the orange and it nearly drove me crazy. I had it early on and then tried to add a little more highlight and ruined it-ended up wiping it all off and started again-standing in the kitchen. I like the result-especially the background and the shadows. The background started out dioxazine purple with a small amount of the other colors but in time it overwhelmed the tomato-once I cooled it with green and white the tomato popped. I would have liked more color on the shadow side but I was happy enough and had spent too much time to mess it up. Sometimes you have to know when to stop-one of the hardest lessons to learn when painting.

Painted August 29, 2010