Open Pomegranate Study

Painted from life, in Instanbul Turkey. 

I ventured out from my hotel in search of local fruit to paint and found pomegranates at a charming old fruit stall with a wood-paneled interior. I returned to the shop almost every day to buy fruit to eat and paint - strawberries, figs, melons and these pomegranates! 

I painted these pomegranates repeatedly over the course of a few days and learned a lot about how to capture their essence; the skin was reflective but subtly also matte, which was very tricky to paint. I learned from careful studying that the shape is a rounded hexagon, something I never noticed before. This is the beauty of carefully looking at something in order to paint it accurately, you learn so much about how it is built. 

For this study, I opened the fruit in an attempt to paint the little jewel-like seeds. It's easy to get overwhelmed and caught up in trying to capture every single detail, but this — I have learned — is a trap for the novice. Through my work copying studies by Sargent, or Manet (I copied his watercolor of Irises earlier this year), I've seen how effective it is to summarize the details, finding the core of their traits and painting that; with the inside of this pomegranate it was four things - a tan colored bed for the seeds that had shadow and highlights, the reflections on the seeds, the shadows on the seeds and the undulation of all these things combined. 

Dated Sept. 21, 2025 

Size: 11.6" x 8.2"

2025-10-G

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