Bowl with mandarins

Bowl with mandarins, 2015

Bev Byrnes — Bowl with mandarins, oil on linen, 2015

Finished this one a couple weeks back. Getting the shadows of the mandarins was a learning process. Going in with brown umbers just didn’t look right, like the fruit was badly bruised. I needed to keep more of the local color in the shadows, keeping it solidly in the orange/red family while also darkening enough to denote shadow. The green of the leaves was a challenge, too. Eventually found a Kremer pigment that worked perfectly as the base, then added yellows and blues as needed. Painting the bowl was fun. It had a subtle sienna-tinged glaze around the underside that played beautifully against the soft blue of the body.

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4 thoughts on “Bowl with mandarins

  1. Lance

    Thank you for posting your work. It’s fantastic too see the process and to gain some insight into what goes on behind the scenes through your writing.

    I’ve recently gotten back into painting after abandoning it for years and seeing work like yours is truly inspiring.

    Have you done any step- by- step posts of your process? It would sure be interesting.

    I look forward to seeing more.

  2. Bev Byrnes Post author

    Thanks for your kind note, Lance. There are some process photos on the website here from about a year back, starting around March of 2014, but you’ll find more of that kind of thing on my Instagram (Bev Byrnes). Good luck with the painting!

  3. Jack Baumgartner

    Such good work, Bev. The bowl is beautifully executed. If I may say so too, I feel that the overall strength of your compositions is improving considerably- not to mention your paint handling. To see both growing so strong in balance is incredible. Thank you for sharing your work. It is very inspiring!

  4. Bev Byrnes Post author

    Thank you, Jack. I appreciate your insights. I’ve been doing a lot of consideration of composition — what makes for visual strength and appeal — and feel a bit lucky with this one. It’s an ongoing struggle for me, though. Traditional compositional ‘formulas’ are helpful, but not the full story (as you know). By the way, I’ve been listening to your music again lately. Have one particular banjo tune playing in my head lately, even when not listening to the recording. It’s a real joy — thank you.

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