Through training and interest I am a figure painter who also dabbles in landscape. Normally that means portraits and religious figurative painting. But this summer I became interested in flesh of another kind, the insides of fruit and veg. Think about it, when does a painter get a chance to paint all those intense colors and not have the result questioned?

Due to other demands and an incident with a wind-blown downed tree on my studio, my painting time this summer was curtailed quite a bit. Nonetheless I decided to do a series of painted sketches, limiting myself to three or four sessions per painting (6 – 9 hours). As the watermelon painting is my favorite of the group, and the least ‘sketchy’, I’m showing it.

The aforementioned issues also caused me to use two different sets of these melons. I was suprised to discover that not all watermelons are alike inside and that’s not only because of species differences. The saturated red you see below was only present in the last melon I painted. The one before it was far lighter and less saturated. This is what I meant in the post title, ‘chasing melons’. It’s similar to painting hair, when at each painting session or even between breaks the shape of the model’s hair changes. The painter can chase that forever but eventually he needs to pick one arrangement and stick with it! I managed to maintain much of the originals’ size, shape and placements but I decided to pursue the color of the final set.

Under natural light a white background presents another difficulty. Even in north light the color of the light is ever changing. This is far less noticeable on a darker background and many of the objects but using a white one is asking for trouble. When the sky is clear, the reflected light is cool and that tints the scene blue. Solid cloud cover grays that down. White, puffy clouds tend to reflect the sun and suddenly the background has a light golden tint. Here again the artist can chase this many times during every session or pick one.

However, it’s one thing to maintain a shape but quite another to maintain a color. As I’ve outlined in previous posts, seeing impressionistically requires that the artist constantly compare and relate all aspects of the scene. Restricting the color of the background means that comparing the other colors becomes problematic. It takes a good visual memory and a knowledge of color to maintain harmony.

One intentional challenge on my part was the edge of the slice where the red hits the white of the background. Hint – add a little green.

Watermelons, Personal Size ©2011 All Rights Reserved
12″ x 14″, oil on linen, available
I like this little painting and I shall probably frame it in a wide, white frame with a thin gold fillet.

Below is the initial lay-in. As you can see, it’s lighter than the final painting (shown above) and I also began with a larger canvas format. The pink in the melon flesh is closer in hue to the original set of melons rather than the final set. This session was about two hours long.

I rarely do an initial drawing for a painting anymore and if the painting is of subjects which do not move I just go directly in with paint. Bear in mind that it is not my intent to do a tightly rendered painting as I want my viewers to stand back in order that they might view the painting as a whole. Had I other goals, a living or complicated subject, I might well have begun with a charcoal drawing on the canvas.

As you can see in the next photo, during session two I began to rethink my composition. I recall spending one hour at it this time.

Session three was a bit longer at four hours, with the second set of melons and a re-stretched canvas. Another change was that the original slice managed to stay upright all on its own. In this and the last session I had to prop the new slice up with a paper towel

Below is a photo of the setup as seen through the mirror at the back of my studio, taken midway through the third painting session. I could not shoot the photo from the exact angle I used to see the scene as when I was painting because my head and the camera blocked some of the mirror reflection. I think it was Leonardo who said that ‘the mirror is your teacher’, therefore I try to use it often.

The final session of about 2 hours resulted in the painting shown near the top of the post. During that session I made some slight adjustments to the saucer and basically worked my way all through the painting studying edges.