Paul Cezanne - French artist 1839-1906
‘A Painter of Apples’

The Still Life Arrangement at right

This painting was done on MDF board and primed with three-in-1 Primer from Bunnings. (Taubmans 3N1). Alan used a rigger brush and some small flat brushes for this demonstration. (Cheap Bunnings brushes)
Alan gave a presentation before he commenced painting giving a brief background on Cezanne and some relevant points concerning this picture.

After Alan completed the arrangement of the still life he proceeded to block the picture in quickly with a piece of charcoal. He drew rough shapes, squares, ovals etc. in groups just how he wanted them arranged in the picture then proceeded to shape each area how he wanted it to be with more definition altering anything that needed to be fixed. Critical guidelines were put in at this stage.
When he was satisfied that it was done he brushed the excess marks quickly off the board with a light cloth leaving only light outlines. Next he outlined the main shapes with the rigger brush with grey acrylic paint because of the paint’s quick drying characteristics.

The colours in the fruit, oranges and mandarins were applied next in bright dobs applied with a small flat brush from one area to another distributing each colour of choice to various areas of the picture. Cad yellow and cad red was used as the base bright colours for some of the fruit other colours were introduced to give each piece a more interesting look. Purple was added to red for some shadows. Shading went in as he went along. Alan dipped his brush into turps every now and then to keep the paint flowing evenly. He had a clean brush for each colour, keeping the work quite sticky. The palette was a pad of disposable sheets. Grapes were painted with purple leaving highlights as he went; ultramarine was used for grape shadows. Yellow ochre was used for the basket with added burnt sienna for basket shadows.

The general idea for this work was to alternate warm and cool with a little space in between. Bringing everything together with the folds in the cloth Alan used white in blue and doing the strokes in the same direction. The kettle had been under painted blue. Alan applied the dark shadows on the kettle and the brown rusty look with some of the blue showing through leaving some highlights and blending with white where needed. The black lines were drawn in along the way. At the finish the colours were strong and warm. The overall effect was a most appealing painting. He achieved this in one and a half hours. Given three hours it would have looked even better.

Once again Alan, thank you for a most interesting demonstration and entertaining afternoon.

- Report by Naine Sankey

Alan's finished "Cezanne"

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