My husband, Joe came up with this idea.
Fruit fresh from the farmer’s market was sitting on the kitchen counter – ripe figs and rich, red grapes – next to some Bartlett pears from my parents’ tree. He said matter of factly, “you should put that fruit in that plate and paint it” – pointing to the piece of Italian pottery hanging on the wall- the one that he’d bought as my birthday gift on our first trip to Italy.
The large decorative plate was from a shop owned by a young woman faence artist in the small Tuscan town of Montaione. I fell in love with it. It ended up arriving from Italy ON my birthday.
Making the painting was a trial. The ivy was really dark in the original photo and hard to make out. Without a strong drawing, I was painting half-blind and making a mess of the background. More than half way across and I gave up on it.
I put the whole piece of paper in the kitchen sink and washed off the paint as best I could. I took a new ivy photo under better light, Photoshopped it with the original, dried and flattened the paper, redrew the ivy and began again. Better. Much better. The tablecloth was challenging too – without a decent drawing I had to again make it up.
Then fun started. Painting the plate was a delight. I kept imagining the moment when the ceramic artist had originally painted on the glazes, appreciating her as I re-traced her brush strokes.
This painting is a result of contribution – from the earth, of another artist half a world away and of my wonderful husband.
August 2009 – 16″x 30″ – Watercolor on paper
More from the Fruit Gallery
Roma
There’s much more in this one than meets the eye. There's a family trip that included a few days in Rome, when my husband, Joe, our nibling HLeigh, and I set out wandering on foot. We made our way across central Rome to the Campo dei Fiori – a daily market for fruits,...
September
Wait... there are still plums on the tree... and it's September! Returning home from a hike up the hill with the dog in our neighborhood in Fairfax, I was taken aback by the sight. Normally the plums are gone by at latest mid-August. The leaves were starting to turn...
One
Years ago, I read on a poster filled with ideas for living well: Pick a piece of fruit from a tree and eat it. How strange that we need reminding—so many of us are disconnected from the source of our food. I was fortunate to be raised on two properties in Woodacre,...
Always
In October 2014, I lead my first art retreat in Healdsburg, California. I saw a fuyu persimmon tree that was loaded with fruit. It had rained lightly the night before, and everything was sprinkled with droplets. The background of my favorite image—just the grey of...
Family of Lemons
Out in the narrow side yard of our Fairfax house is an epic Meyer lemon tree. Planted by a previous resident of our house, this tree is indefatigable. There was hardly a time in the 23 years we lived there that we could not go pick a ripe lemon. I worried about it...
Persimmon Sun II
Sometimes things get painted because they're to come next. I had drawn this months earlier when I was in the mood to do another persimmon - another from our Fairfax neighbor's tree. This image came from the same visit as Persimmon Sun. I had just finished Dazzling,...
Blueberry Symphony
These blueberries found me on a farm in Nevada City, California, while on a weekend with friends. The bright summer sun accentuated all the colors the berries pass through on the way to our cereal bowls and pie plates. Just like the Zinfandel grapes I’ve painted, they...
Persimmon Sun
A visit back to my neighbor Jen's persimmon tree the fall of 2008 was a bright sunny day. I arrived none to soon. The birds had started to help themselves to the ripe persimmons - many of them were half-eaten. Persimmon Rain had been such a special piece, a favorite...
Queen Anne Cherries
Stone fruit are a favorite - to eat and to paint. I'd already painted peaches and apricots. Now for some cherries on the tree to paint. My friend Brenda called to tell me that people were flocking to the self-pick orchards in Brentwood, near where she lived. They...
Apricots in the Sun
These apricots grew on a tree in my sister-in-law, Anne and her husband Gary's backyard in San Anselmo, California - the same garden where grows the tree that grew the peaches that became my painting Tropical Peaches. And - this is the same tree that grew the...
Tropical Peaches
One summer early in my painting life, as fruit started ripening on trees in the gardens of loved ones, I couldn't wait to get out with my camera - I had a hankering to paint stone fruit. When I got a call from my sister-in-law Annie, telling me their peaches were...
Pomegranates, Jacinta’s Garden
In October 1996, at the end of my half a year in France, I traveled throughout Europe for two weeks with two of my brothers, Matt and Mike. We met my parents on the Croatian Island of Brac, where my grandparents were born. Brac is a rocky, arid island dotted with...
Persimmon Rain
On the street leading up to our Fairfax house a persimmon tree hangs over a neighbor's fence. At the time I painted this, my husband, Joe and I had been living in this neighborhood for several years. Every fall, as I went by it, I thought I want to paint those...