Fallen Friend

"Pear and eggplant" 
oil on panel, 8 x 6 inch.
REF #: SF0000004

For this still life it was the contrast in value and hue of the green and purple, and the repetition of form that gave me the idea for this oil painting.  I read a moment into this picture, like there's something tender about this pear looking down it's fallen companion.  Perhaps it is a version of the pieta with the pear and eggplant playing Mary and Jesus.  One of the pleasures of paintings is reading a narrative from them.  Do you have any thoughts?

If I had my time over again I'd alter the colour of the surfaces; slightly cooler and more neutral.  My shadow box (still life box) is made of pine and it's still in crisp new condition that gives that pale skin colour.  It's so light I'm getting a lot of reflected light bouncing from the sides and ground like on the left and bottom side of the pear.  A surface that's a little more neutral and mid-tone might soften the lighting and darken the shadows. 

On a completely different note, I happen to like eggplant in our spaghetti sauce and so we grow dwarf eggplants in our backyard just for this purpose.  Dwarf ones because they grow faster.  I don't want to give the impression we're successful backyard farmers.  This just happens to be one of the few edible plants that our destructive chooks will leave alone and it happens to grow well in our garden beds without needing too much attention.