Pumpkins were on my list to paint for a long time. I would always look at pumpkins in the shop and imagine how beautiful they would look on the painting. Last autumn I finally bought the pumpkins and made a long photo session with them in my garden at golden hours – evening time. I left pictures on my camera and came back to them a few months later. I usually look at miniatures of pictures and choose those which make me look at them longer because of striking colours and interesting composition.
I made an interesting observation, that I usually make composition of three fruits/vegetables for painting. They just create the perfect focal points for good composition. I also love to use two different colours for the background.
It took lots of time to finish this painting. I tried a new to me technique to paint in layers of colour. First you paint everything with white and greys, then a layer of colour, then another, and another layer of colour until you are ready for details. Sometimes the grayscale version makes the next colour layer look too dark. This time it took ages to fix the dark background. Hopefully in the future I am going to remember to use lighter shades of grey for the first layer.
I love the final effect – vivid colours and interesting textures. The light from the left side illuminates pumpkins showing their interesting forms and creating interesting shadows.
It feels like I am improving my skills with each painting. I am very pleased with the final result.
