A New Still Life -- and the perils of perishables

The challenge in this new painting is to paint organic objects before they perish. For this exercise--the last required still life in the Academy of Realist Art's program--students normally choose something that is common, available year-round and easily replaceable like a cherry tomato, a lemon, or a wedge of garlic. More daring students have chosen fresh flowers and fish from the St. Lawrence Market and then painted them rapidly in one sitting. (With fish, you can understand why).

I wanted to use some autumn vegetables, especially ones with unusual colours and shapes like the gourds that start appearing in the supermarkets markets in September.

The composition I ended up with consists of one pumpkin, a yellow gourd, and an apple, placed near an overturned basket with pine cones scattered about. The more I stare at the setup, the more it seems to me like the vegetables are assuming personalities. Here the apple is on trial. The pumpkin is the judge. The gourd is the prosecutor. And the pinecones are security guards.

My biggest concern was that the pumpkin would spoil before I had a chance to finish it. I started painting it first. As insurance, I have 2 substitutes in our fridge at home, waiting to stand in when needed. But it turns out that the gourd was the first to spoil, with a green mould appearing practically overnight a few weeks after setting up thie scene... The apple is doing just fine and I'm not worried about replacing it.

Below: the painting and the setup as of November 14th.

 

 

Here's a close up: 

 

 

This is the best reference photo I have of the gourd in its current position. I painted it fully this week and just need to add highlights later. 

 

In an earlier vision of this painting, I used a larger green apple, but it was too distracting.

My first gourds were elongated and more colourful but the setup didn't work.