Bosc Pear #2 (app 5 x 9 1/2 oil on wood panel

This photo has the greens less subtle than I painted. Bosc #2 is to be followed by #3 if I can get #3 into shape today. We had rather ugly winter weather last night, rain and snow and sleet, the streets are treacherous, which means no errands today. I have a whole day of un-interrupted time to get old #3 into shape. E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com if you wish to.

Bosc Pears #1 5x7 Oil on wood panel

Bosc Pears #1 just flowed onto the panel, guiding my hand wherever the brush needed to be. It was easy, it was pleasant, and whoever it was who said if it feels good do it, I'm following that advice. #2 and #3 are already under way . And if you are so minded, you can E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Cantelope 5x5 oil on wood panel

This was sort of an experiment. I usually begin the painting with acrylics and get it into a pretty good state of development before I switch to oils. I was in a big hurry with this one, so I reverted back to really transparent oil washes ( lots of turp) which was the way we did it in art school before acrylics were invented. But I kept on going with the super-thin oil washes until I nearly had it completed, at which time I began fattening up the glazes with the orangey part of the fruit and added the seedy part last with fairly fat layer of white. Anyway I got this little 5x5 out of the way in a hurry. It has taken me years to get to where I began... E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Blue Calico Cups(app3 1/2x12)oil on wood panel

This particular shape forces me to make some peculiar judgments with regard to composition. It is sort of easy to do something with a vertical shape, but when it comes to horizontal, I seem to be stuck with a row of something. I think I will try an exterior scene next, or I guess I could cut them in half for an easier space to deal with. That seems awfully small. E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Bananas#3 (app 5 1/2X8) oil on wood panel

There was an obscure old stillife I once saw, probably European and very very old, maybe from the 1800's, and dark from age and not being cleaned. It had some bananas in it that were dark like the rest of the still life but would have been bright yellow like we see in the grocery stores. Bananas in Europe would have been rare and exotic at the time the artist painted them. I have sort of emulated them (from memory) but I ate them before thy turned dark. E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Green Bell Pepper#3 6x6 Oil on wood panel

This was supposed to be my last big green pepper. I'm going to amend that statement and add "for a while". There are so many varieties and colors, they are all beautiful - you could use them on your Christmas tree. E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Mushroom Row(app 3 1/2x11 1/2)oil on wood panel

Mushrooms are both famous and notorious. They can either cure you or kill you. Elves live under them, you can eat them, and you can get high on them. Artists have always painted them. The only negative I have heard of is it that takes a real expert to tell the difference between a poisonous one and a safe-to-eat one. E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Across the Lake(app) 6x6 Oil on wood panel

If you didn't know better you would say this is a river - and it once was. They built a dam which turned the river into what must be the longest and skinniest lake ever. Even after the dam it was full of trout and great fishing but now ( due to pollution from the nearest tourist town) the fish are gone. But it is still incredibly beautiful. E- mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Cup of A.M.Coffee 5x5 Oil on wood panel

It takes an early cup of coffee - or maybe two - to get me really waked up and back into this world every day, but painting a cup of coffee does'nt necessarily have the same effect as drinking a cup of coffee. (At78, I have only two addictions left - coffee and painting.) I spent way too much time trying to paint the same buzz out of this cup as I got out of drinking it. I had to leave it behind and go on with my other daily painting, coming back to it every once in a while in the hope of breathing some life into it - some spark - some pop - and I finally got it. E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Copper Pot (app) 5x7 oil on wood panel

I know this is a copper pot. I can tell by looking at it. But it seems like a strange coffee pot with a beer stein lid - this painting of it is actual size - I don't think it would hold a full cup of coffee. In the Missouri Ozarks we didn't have anything like it - moonshiners were about the only ones I knew that used copper, and not for coffee pots. I like it, I think it is cool, and I have painted it several times and shall do so again. E-mail me at artist johnwlong@live.com

Poppies 5x5 oil on wood panel

There are a number of different subjects that use poppies as a symbol, including love, the Virgin Mary, and royalty. In other words sex, religion, and politics. E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Hanging Grapes (app)6x6 Oil on wood panel

"Hanging Grapes" has been hanging around my studio for at least 6 months. I posted it once but when I ran across it recently I was dissatisfied with it so I tweaked it, and here it is again in a new incarnation. Salvadore Dali used to say that he gave a painting seven days to be complete, as his feeling was that any painting was never really finished so you should give yourself a deadline. A 6x6 panel should be finished in 2 to 4 hours and if not, start a new one. You can always come back to it - I did with this one.E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com