Fruit – The 52-Week Art Project 2026

For week 39 of The 52-Week Art Project the prompt is Fruit. This is the last prompt of the summer batch. Next week we start cozy season and I’ll be doing things a bit differently. Keep an eye out for my next post where I will be explaining the changes I’ll be making going forward.

Below, I’ll explain the techniques and supplies I used on this week’s painting. I hope these posts can be informative and interesting and that they will inspire you to have a go and get creative too!

The #CH52art Project Overview

• A creative project or those of us who can’t create daily, for whatever reason.
• There is 1 prompt per week to ​interpret in any way & take your time with.
• Use any medium (collage, clay, paint, photography, baking, knitting, lego, fabric, etc)
• You can skip a prompt anytime if needed, your wellbeing comes first. No stress here.
• You don’t need social media to participate, but if you share online, please use #CH52art
• Share your creations to the gallery on my blog (optional) & be inspired by other creatives.

Visit this page for more details.

My aim was to post my creations at the start of the week, by Sunday evening or Monday morning. So I was creating my pieces for each prompt one week in advance. I have really been struggling to keep up with weekly posts with my fluctuating chronic illness, so things will be changing a bit for the rest of the project. That said, the gallery is always available, so you can browse or, if you’re participating, upload your creations, anytime.

Thank you for supporting my endeavors at ChronicallyHopeful.com. This page contains affiliate links. Meaning, if you were to make a purchase after clicking on one of my links, I would make a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Every tiny bit helps, so I’m very grateful for your support!

Wk39 Prompt: Fruit

This was my first painting after a few weeks without. After the digital art summit, I was pretty wiped out and found it hard to get back to my regular routines. I was super inspired, but lacked the energy to execute anything. So I was very happy to be able to paint again this week.

Making Use Of Prepainted Backgrounds

I was not sure what I would paint for this prompt, so I started by rummaging through my drawer of paper to see what I could find. I felt a nice thick sheet of smooth watercolour paper, so I pulled it out and saw that it already had paint on it.

It was one of those palette cleaning pages, but instead of covering the whole page with colours and shapes, I had only painted 4 long rectangles on it. I instantly thought of bookmarks and the colours coincidentally reminded me of citrus fruit. Specifically oranges, blood oranges and grapefruit. Yum! And so an idea was sparked…

Please excuse any dull lighting on some of the photos below. I work in low light because bright lighting drains my energy (light sensitivity is an ME/CFS symptom). So progress pictures are often taken in low artificial lighting. I’ll try to correct the greyish/yellowish colouring, and get them as close to their actual colouring as I can, prior to posting.

* click on images to zoom in.

Slices Of Citrus – Gouache & Ink

First, I taped off the edges of each bookmark with washi tape. These are not to any specific measurement as the painted backgrounds were slightly different widths. I don’t think it matters too much, they will do their job and will still look lovely.

I then used my favourite waterproof brush pen for drawing and sketched out the design. I made 2 bookmarks with fruit slices and leaves and the other 2 with fruit slices and blossoms.

The next step was to colour match the fruit to the backgrounds. This meant that I had to mix a new batch of gouache to try get as close to the background colour for each one as I could.

I mixed the colours so that they’d be more intense, using less water, so as to create some contrast with the background and add some vibrancy to the fruit. Working in layers to add depth of colour and leaving some areas lighter to depict the idea of light passing through the slices.

Next, it was time to fill in the empty spaces around the slices of fruit. Painting the leaves and blossoms and adding my usual little floating circles to add interest to any emtpy space.

I then used an acrylic paint pen to add white highlights to the slices and the tiny little floating circles.

After removing the tape, I used the brush pen again to draw a double-line border around the bookmarks. I did this freehand and intentionally made wobbly, broken lines.

I really like this style of line-work. Not only do I like the look of it, but it also allows me the freedom to create even when my hands are shaky from the ME/CFS.

Lastly, I cut them out leaving a bit of space around the border to keep the uneven painterly edges of the backgrounds.

I really love how these bookmarks turned out. While they were out on my desk drying, I loved seeing them whenever I walked by. The colours are vibrant and they just make me happy.

Next: Autumn – Year End Prompts

We have finished the summer prompt list! That’s been 13 weeks of prompts. Thank you to everybody who participated and shared their creations. It was lovely to see how you interpreted each prompt. I’ve added links and thumbnails to the gallery so viewers can see your work too.

Next up are the cozy autumn batch of prompts which will carry us through to the end of the year. As always, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you may work on the Spring batch of prompts or whichever ones fit your current season. You can find all the lists here.

I will not be posting weekly updates for the next batch. I have been struggling to keep up with so much on my plate right now. I will make a separate post explaining how I will be moving forward with this project, so do keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, just below is the list we will be using for the rest of the year. Feel free to save it or repost it on your socials if you are participating.

Would You Like To Participate?

The #CH52art Summer Gallery 2026

Blog Parties & Link-ups where I’m sharing this post. Click here to see my link-up calendar and find new blogs to enjoy!