Today I Saw a Pair of Pears

A Pair of Pears

I was feeling incredibly noble after volunteering as a "parent helper" in my son's literacy studies class earlier this week (although I seriously doubt how much of a "help" I actually am - I swear, a lot of the time I'm more confused than the kids!).

On this day, the kids and I had oodles of fun exploring the world of homophones.  After some discussion, a magnificent sentence was concocted by a couple of the students to demonstrate they could understand and apply the meaning of the term in context.  Goodness me, what an absolute pearler of a sentence they devised.  Ready?  Excited?

Here goes: "Today I saw a pair of pears."  Aren't they clever?  Hey, what do you mean, you already knew that was going to be the sentence they came up with?  Wow - you must be clever as well (or maybe you just read the title of this post).

Anyway, couple of days later I was having a cup of tea thinking about homophones (aka reliving nightmares) when a little light-bulb "pinged" in my head.  "Hey!" I thought, "I'll paint a pair of pears!".  Quickly, feeling inspired, I pulled out the acrylics and set about creating the above artwork.

Technically, this little painting was a very interesting experiment, where I explored some techniques as suggested by the author Jackie Shaw in her book Step-by-Step Painting Course (2003). 

Essentially, Jackie (yes, I'm sure we are on a first names relationship basis) encourages us all to make use of subtle washes when painting, in order to create a luminous and reasonably life-like resemblance to the subject.

"Hey Jackie", I thought after flicking through the book, "I'll give it a go".  And so I did.  I am pleased to say I quite enjoyed the process.  Looking at the completed painting, I don't think I can say I nailed it, but I can say I most certainly had fun trying! :-)

Finally, not wanting to leave you with any unanswered questions about my pear of pairs, I wanted to answer the obvious questions that probably have sprung to your mind a) "Kate, whatever happened to the pears?" and b) "What did you do with the painting?".  Well, the short answer to a) is... we ate them.

The answer to b) is slightly more exotic and exciting: Since it was his class that inspired me to paint my pair of pairs, my son felt it was appropriate that he become the proud owner of the artwork. And I agreed. So, as of this afternoon, The Pair of Pears is now proudly blu-tacked to his bedroom wall for evermore as a homage to homophones (until the tack perishes and the painting falls under his bed and collects dust bunnies).  Aw, what can I say, sometimes it's nice to be appreciated by your nearest and dearest!

Anyway, that's it from me - have a wonderful weekend! Be sure to visit me next week to see what I come up with!

Kate x