Five Pieces in the Shape of a Pear…
This was an exploration through levels of representation / modes of seeing.
It began with a photograph in which I captured a pear in a glow of late morning sunlight on my kitchen counter (Pear I). Using that as my model, I painted a realistic watercolor of that photographic image (Pear II). I showed my painting to a friend who didn’t quite like it (why, I can’t recall!) so thought I’d try again, but I found that I had “used up” that mental image of the pear… its energy had gone into the first painting and I couldn’t recapture it.
So instead, I distilled the pear, so to speak, and created a more simplified image (Pear III). Intrigued by that process, I repeated it (Pear IV) – this time propping the first painting on the counter, and stepping away to the far end of the kitchen, sans glasses, (a distance of nearly 20 feet) to make another watercolor sketch. Finally, I took another step away, from realism into a digital abstraction of the pear on the counter (Pear V), using Pear IV as inspiration.

I found it very interesting that each concept of the pear on the counter had only so much energy to contribute, that once it had flowed from mind through hand to paper, I had used it up, and no longer could – or wanted to – recapture it: a little like rubbing a wand on a cat’s back and then releasing the spark of energy that builds up, by grounding the wand. This is something I have noticed a number of times over the years (in my art, not so much with my cat…); I wonder if it reflects something about the creative process… or if it’s just me!