Grasses

 

At this scale I see no point in painting all the individual blades of grass, and they are not the focus of the piece. I look at it as painting the essence of grass. At the end I'll throw in some blades for texture.

 

 

 

 

Going Small

 After working on a major piece, I often paint a series of smaller ones. This time it happens to coincide with upcoming shows where I like to have a variety of painting sizes for my booths.

 

One would think that after painting all the tiny beads in Bearing Good Fruit (see most recent posts), I would try and design pieces where I didn't have to use the small brushes.

 

Nope. Just about all of the paintings employ tiny strokes of paint. 

 

 One of my favorite things to do is create an expansive scene in a small format.

This piece is 7.5" x 16" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished

 

 

Bearing Good Fruit

Original Oil painting by Linda Besse 

32" X 21"

 

 

This piece has certainly been one to "stretch my brushes." There were so many elements which were challenging because they were new to me and the whole concept of having a sepia background was a departure from what one might "usually" choose.

 

One of the joys of painting is learning new things, even after more than two decades of professionally painting. It can also be frustrating. Fortunately, after years of trying new things I've learned to embrace the challenges. Of course that doesn't mean I don't toss and turn in bed trying to figure out tomorrow's next painting step.

 

Thank you all for following my blog and the in-progress steps to finish this painting. The posts for this piece began on January 1, 2026 and I have had more views on this painting than any other I have posted.

 

May we all embrace the "new" in this New Year, expand our horizons, and bear good fruit to the world.

 

 

Almost done

 

The beading is basically finished at this point. My bead colors below the basket are darker and more muted than above.

Her earrings are painted.

My model now has fingernails and I have added some pinks and greens to to the mangoes and gave them more depth within the basket.

 

At this stage there were two important areas to finish. 

The first is her face. It read a bit plastic or frozen. While the "smile" was in her eyes, it didn't quite extend to her mouth. Some shading around her eyes and cheeks was needed and some adjustment to her lips.

 

The second area to be adjusted was the background. My original concept was to treat the background as a sepia-toned backdrop for her. I still liked that idea. Since painting her took so long (you are reading a shortened version in my blog) the background was fully dry and ready to accept a yellow ochre and raw sienna glaze with a medium.

 

Stay posted for the reveal of the completed painting. 

 

 

 

Beads! Lots of them

 

I found painting the beads a challenge, until I found an easy way to give them depth. For each color I mixed a light and a dark. I'd paint the dark of the bead and then dot the lighter color as a highlight.

(If you click on the above image and zoom in you can see what I mean.) Keep in mind these painted beads are quite a bit smaller than in real life.

 

On the collar there are two horizontal beaded bars. The actual collar has single different colored beads for the horizontal bars. A single red bead next to a white, next to a yellow, next to a ...

At this scale (the painting is 32" X 21") that would read as a jumble. I decided to take the colors from the flat rectangular piece below the collar and use those colors for the bars.

 

There were also sections of the earrings which had individual beads next to a different colored bead. I decided to match the horizontal bar colors I created.

 

 

 

 

I can't sew

Well, I can sew on a button and I have used a sewing machine once for a project a long time ago. But, the idea of making a dress or even hemming one, is daunting.

However, I can alter clothing from my model. 

 

 The first item to change on this dress were the sleeves. My model's dress had short sleeves and sleeveless is the common style among Maasai women. A cloak/blanket would be worn over the dress for warmth.

 

 The second thing to change were the wrinkles. My model was standing with her right hip forward (left as we are looking at the painting.) Her hip was more prominent and fabric folds were across her hips. I "moved" her right hip in and added more dress to her left side. The fabric folds are more modest.

 

The dress had swirls of beads in places but this distracted from the beads flowing down from the neck collar. I "removed" those beads.

 

Lastly, I painted the fabric to have more of a thick cotton look.

 

 

 

At this point I've started on the beading. I knew there was more work to do on her face but wanted to wait until all the beading was done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red!

 

With a sepia-toned background and muted colors in the basket and fruit, the red dress will stand out.

Here come the colors!