What's Cooking In the Studio?

Along with the Featured Painting from the last post, I completed Sinkside Compost #7. As I mentioned, the style of this and #8 are looser than the previous ones. Part of the looseness in this one is the smaller panel size while still using the same size brushes. There was a lot of white food scraps in this composition with old lettuce leaves, egg shells and pale broccoli. Then there is a nice brown banana peel in there for contrast.

Last month I showed the sketches of two potential watercolors for a commission. The trillium flower was chosen. Here is an image of the partially completed piece. It's about 95% complete. At this point I slow down in my painting. I will spend about an hour on it at a stretch and then let it sit for a few hours or a day. I slow myself down at the end of a botanical painting because I have learned that going too far is too easy. So I approach it cautiously, identifying only two or three places to improve at each sitting. Then critiquing it and determining the next two or three places for improvement the next time.

What next, after the Sinkside Compost Series? I've been starting to think about a new direction my food paintings. Here is a sketch painting for a series of work that will look more at the psychological relationship we have with food. I am pairing up lines from love songs and songs about relationships with food that I am addicted to. I have been working hard at losing weight -- I have lost almost twenty pounds since the end of January. While restricting myself I have observed cravings and addictions to sugary foods and some other tempting treats. As a child of the 70's and 80's, I was indoctrinated to certain relational expectations via popular music. I find that both of these desires, for food and love, are similar and similarly warped by our culture. I will be talking about this in the next series. It should be interesting.