playing hard to get

Guess you could say there is a double entendre for the title of this painting.

The pear on the left just wouldn't cozy up to the pear on the right! So it did seem to be playing hard to get.

The other elusive element was that da*n yellow in shadow!

I almost gave up. I thought the problem was the color of the pears but it was really a problem with the surrounding color! It started out with a dark navy-ish background which had worked well on an earlier painting of pears. That one was a trio of pears on a wooden plated and the yellow stood out well against the dark so I figured it would be good for this painting.

But it just didn't work with this composition. The important element here is the relationship between the pears. (I know... they're PEARS not people!)
Whatever...
Anyway, the area of interest is the push/pull of distance and connection in the space between the pears. Light from the pear on the right reflects on the opposite pear and you can tell they have a lot in common.

But the pear on the left? It's just not sure yet, weighing it's options.

There's no competition with a grey background - it creates a neutral environment that makes sense.
(Neutral and non-competative... which is good if you are thinking about how pears might have relationships that they are sort of ambivalent about...) And yet I know - pears are not people.

In any case... I'm happy with the yellow in shadow. And that was the whole point, right?
(unless you are a pear... and then maybe it's about playing hard to get!)