A Late Substitution

I was reminded of the long shadows of de Chirico's piazzas with the angled light on the books while painting.  To me it feels architectural in its structure. 

The mango was originally a red rose, but I didn't think it matched the three-dimensionality of the books so I painted it out and let the area dry for a couple of days.  I scoured the fridge, and came up with this slightly over-ripe mango, with its pitted and mottled surface.  I like the way it accentuates the deep red of the spines. I photographed the mango on top of a single book so I would get the scale and the shadow and perspective right.  Usually, I try out different possible compositions, replacing one object with another, in my photo shoots.  Rarely do I paint an object and substitute another at this later stage of painting. 

Compositionally, I wanted to contrast the leather spines with the worn and tattered paper of the books, with the vertical pile balanced against the horizontal mass of books.  The paper had colours ranging from black, dark brown, to all sorts of mushroom colours, with whites for highlights.  They reminded me of the crinkled drapery of some of my earlier paintings.