I'm on a run of chili peppers , as you may have noticed. The little selection I bought at the supermarket was pricey enough, so there's no point in wasting the opportunity.
In essence, this is a study in edges and colour. I kept the background loose as I thought that to describe it too accurately would detract from the composition. I put just enough detail in to suggest a patterned fabric and left it at that. They're an interesting subject to paint, peppers -they have a very reflective surface and the red ones have a surprising number of hues and temperatures. The middle pepper is a case in point; it starts at the stalk end as a very warm orange/red and drops in temperature to a cooler red at the blue end of the spectrum. I've found colour temperature to be one of the more difficult points to learn along the way.
On another note; an American friend and very experienced painter, Frank Sandford pointed out something that was blindingly obvious once he revealed it to me as I was painting a study of a white jug recently. He suggested that there weren't enough reflections on the surface. I replied that I thought I had put in what was there; yet I already knew that what I had painted was somehow dissatisfying. He took a mirror and stood it in front of the composed objects and said 'That's what is being reflected here'. I felt like a complete pillock, actually, but there you are.
Below is this study framed in one of my new line of frames. What do you think?
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