Teacher’s Pet Series

The Teacher’s Pet Series is a collection of four paintings, each depicting a different apple.

I was thinking about the old tradition of giving an apple to a teacher and trying to reimagine it in a new, artistic way, when I had the idea to make these apple paintings.

I made one painting for each of my Professors at OCADu in the fall term, and I plan to give them to each professor as a gift on the first day of classes.

I spent some time researching common and recognisable apples, as well as apples that would make the best paintings (interesting shapes, colours, patterns, etc.) and settled on Cameo, Gala, Pink Lady, and Granny Smith. I also added a cute little critter with each apple.

To make the apples, I used acrylic marker on gessoed fiberboard. I enjoyed the smoothness of the fiberboard, but also found that the paint sometimes had trouble soaking in to the surface. I tried to use this to my advantage when blending the colours together, which I find can be difficult with acrylic pens, as opposed to classic acrylic paint.

Teacher’s Pet Series – Part Two will be completed this Winter.

A big thank-you to the faculty at OCADu!

10 x 10 cm