A fishy business

In all my years painting still lifes, I have consciously chosen subjects from (what I would call) the 'classic still life'. By this I mean,  a traditional bouquet of flowers or a plant, with a grouping of fruit and vegetables. For me there is still a wealth to be explored and said with these subjects and feel no need to move from this subject. (perhaps this is the topic of a larger blog post?)

That being said small dalliances are allowed. For example, I have always thought it would be fun to paint a modern interpretation of the 'game' still life. A pheasant, rabbit or even deer carcass draped over a table with much finery placed around the macabre scene. In truth the opportunity has never presented itself, so that will have to wait... But fish on the other hand are readily available.

It's taken me a long time to get round to it, but here is my first ever fish painting!

Fish, plums & a runner from Leon M

24X48                Acrylic on wood

And I enjoyed it, so who knows I may paint a fish again in the future, that is unless I stumble upon some other poor creature, shot and ready for the pot!

The runner and indeed the placement of a couple of the Japanese eggplants are loosely based on a painting by Leon Morrocco. I originally designed a rug underneath the table, but tried a number of color treatments before I realized it pulled and distracted too much from the table and and I chose to remove it.

detail

 detail