Campari Tomatoes in Watercolor

It's funny how inspiration & serendipity work together. You have dinner at a friend's home, and while enjoying the lively conversation and delicious food, her paintings catch your eye.  The way she captured the late summer in a watercolor of three small, homegrown apples makes you feel the September sunshine from the light reflecting off the apples.

The next day, a handful of salad tomatoes in the kitchen call out to be painted.  You pull out your paints and brushes, and while away a Sunday afternoon exploring, imagining summer, even though it's rainy and drab outside.

If you get swept away by a handful of ripe tomatoes, a good place to start is taking a reference photo of your still life.  In the hours ahead, while you paint, the lighting will change, & the tomatoes will eventually wilt. Having that reference photo captures the scene that sparked your painting.

A reference photo helps you decide on your composition.  You see your scene laid out inside a frame. You can see the negative space shape, the areas of high contrast in light and shadow, and the proportions of one object compared to another.

I began this painting with a pencil drawing of the scene, then lightened my pencil lines by rolling a kneaded eraser over the drawing to pick up some of the graphite.  Watercolor paints are transparent, and bold graphite lines will show through the finished painting.

I painted the tomatoes first. They were most important -- and most interesting -- to me.  I've learned to find the part of the scene that is most interesting and give that the most attention. It becomes the focal point of the painting.

After the tomatoes were complete, I painted the brown paper foreground, noticing the highlights and midtones, and the dark shadows under the tomatoes.  

I added the wooden box behind the fruits, and worked a little on the wood grain and old nails.  I had to be careful not to get too detailed. I love wood grain, but I don't want it to compete for attention with the tomatoes!

I decided that my shadows were too dense under the trio of tomatoes on the right, so I lightened them up, and unfortunately overdid it. That happens.

I fixed the shadows.  Here's the finished painting, 

with a few other minor tweaks to the tomato on the right.

My biggest challenge in this painting was to control the edges of areas I had painted.  Each time I laid down paint, I had to decide whether I wanted a hard edge or a soft edge.  Soft edges had to be feathered out quickly and gently with a damp, clean brush. Otherwise, defined lines, like the edge between the bottom of the tomato and its shadow, would show everywhere I touched with a wet brush.

I got so absorbed in this painting, I forgot to eat lunch!  That's the power of art to sweep you away.

I post this with gratitude to my friend Beth for a lovely dinner and the inspiration of her vibrant paintings.

Wishing you many happy art explorations that sweep you away!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2023. All rights reserved.