I have made paintings of various items from the refrigerator or the fruit bin over the years and have found apples to be a very appealing subject for still life paintings.  Most apples are fairly easy to recognize for what they are.  Some are red, some are yellow, or yellowish green, some are big and some are quite small but they are all apples.  

There is a symbolic association with apples which carries over to any attempt to portray them.  Most people know the story of Adam and Eve and the fateful bite out of the forbidden fruit that is usually portrayed as an apple.  Somehow a lemon, an orange or even a pomegranate just wouldn’t have quite the same effect.  A pineappple would just be kind of weird.  Besides, when Adam and Eve were partaking of this life changing fruit I don’t think machetes had even been invented yet.  “Hey God,,  How are we supposed to eat this thing?”  Anyway, there is the whole symbolic issue to consider but my interest lies more with the actual appearance of each example of the specific piece or pieces of fruit with which I am dealing.

Apples are beautiful.  They are vibrant and colorful.  They are alive and most of the time they taste really good.  Sometimes they can be pretty sour and not very pleasant but even then  they still look nice.  In a painting, of course, what they taste like doesn’t really matter.

When ever I am painting any kind of still life, my first challenge is to create a reasonable representation of the object as a drawing.  This creates the framework for which the rest of the painting will depend.  Then comes a ground color which in the case of apples is usually some kind of yellow – either Naples or one of the cadmium yellows.  Then I continue with one of the reds in either a pretty strong application or maybe none at all if the apple is a golden delicious.  Close inspection of the subject will dictate what kind of colors I use to layer and add detail.  Then there is the background to deal with and the shadows the apple cast on either side of their presence.  

Still life paintings can be expressive of feelings concerning the subject matter and also convey feelings of how we as artists feel about all kinds of things.  My life is quite pleasant right now so my paintings tend to be fairly positive and cheerful.  I can remember a time when things were more stressful and not as happy and have paintings in storage that remind me of how I felt during those periods of my life.  I am glad that I now have the opportunity and the freedom to paint uplifting , cheerful and positive pieces of artistic expression.  Patience with myself and life situations has definitely paid off.