Frances Vettergreen, pear study (detail), oil and wax on canvas, 2010

So it turns out there’s a whole movement of painters working away every day and blogging about it.  Some of them are really good:  Carol Marine is one of my favourites, though I gotta say I’m more drawn to her 6×6″ dailies than I am to her larger works.   The whole idea is enticing.  Not so much painting daily (wouldn’t that be nice?  No day job, no laundry, no cooking?  Ok, maybe just no day job.  Clean and fed is good) but making a little finished painting every time I’m at the studio? I could explore all sorts of ideas…or, more likely, I could just have fun and keep learning about paint.

I went trolling the internet for more, and discovered that all the daily painters I like — every single one — are making still lifes or landscapes, and really, it’s all about the still life.   No surprise I’d be drawn to landscape, but still life?  Who knew?  Then one day I had some pears at the studio, and they were beautiful, and I was sort of stuck on the tree thing, and, well, here’s what I did.

Fun, huh?  The whole little painting (which may not be finished, I just sort of sketched in the background in the last five minutes before I had to be at work and it’s a bit, oh, blue…but I might leave it, too) is at the bottom.  I’m thinking now you might be seeing some more posts like this.  Reality is I really can’t be a daily painter, but I’m going to shoot for weekly, and I’m going to explore this whole still life thing.  Woot!  A Challenge!

Frances Vettergreen, pears study, oil and wax on canvas, 8 x 10 in, 2010