Art Log

"Where do your ideas for painting come from" I am often asked.  You can trace my thinking with what follows.   In the Okanagan a neighbour will arrive at our door, a large box of fruit in hand, with a slightly desperate look on his face, an indication of a bumper crop of backyard fruit.  How can one family consume it all? Preserve it all?  So the neighbours are fortunate to be recipients. This photo of two plums came from exactly the above described situation.  The photo sat in my files for years but recently when thumbing through Old Master's images with their dark, rich backgrounds suddenly I had an idea I would like to paint a fruit series with this kind of set-up. And what about the foreground? Draped fabric?  Too challenging?  Prints?  Too distracting.  I stepped out the door only to see our little mosaic table and that formed the idea for the foreground.  Ta da!  A synthesis.

I often do taste tests when we have guests, bringing home several types of cherries or apples.  What is the taste difference between a Bartlett and a Bosc, I wondered.  Wanting to paint the pair, I employed  the Old Master's background values again but what about the foreground? My answer came from one of my Matisse books, filled with images of scenes and still lives, draped in fabric, the quilt because there are so many quilters here.