kitchen paintings

got milk?
Winsor & Newton HP 300 gsm 10" x 14". 1 hour.

lately the kitchen has been a late night painting post. my wife is out of town so i can really take the place over.

i put one of the counter stools on the sink side, the counter at my knee, and can paint without leaning over. i put the ipod in the sound system on shuffle, and soak up the halogen kitchen counter lighting -- brighter than my studio lights.

anyway, i did the drawing because i was opening a carton of milk and suddenly wanted to illustrate the movements. i used grease pencil for the red stress marks, and found the pencil does not repel water as i'd imagined but doesn't dissolve in it either, though the edge between paint and pencil is complex and invites looking.

the gimmick here is to draw the right hand with the right hand. i had to alternately pose the hand, then draw part, then pose it again, draw more, etc. i couldn't just reflect the left hand because i turned the carton askew to my viewpoint.


golden beets
Winsor & Newton HP 300 gsm 10" x 14". 2 hours.

i love golden beets. they have bright, orangish scarlet color, but the flesh is a golden yellow. they are delicious with mixed vegetables and a broiled fish, garnished with lemon and served with couscous dusted in paprika.

i did the drawing in charcoal because the beets just lay in the right grouping on the counter. i didn't have chromium green, which i would have preferred for the background. but a casual mixture of venetian red, cadmium scarlet and nickel dioxine yellow, dirtied with phthalo blue, turned out to give just the right beet skin texture.

my regret is that the beets we get locally are trucked in from somewhere, probably the central valley, so the greens are typically shredded up from the field packing and transport. but although you are shredded up by life you do not lose your beauty.