Description
My brother, Mike and his wife, Julie have a hillside backyard in San Anselmo, terraced with stone and covered with rows of Zinfandel vines. Each autumn, he makes the grapes into wine with our brother Matt, a winemaker. I’ve been wanting to paint grapes for some time. One July evening Mike and I spent with our cameras, the sun low in the sky illuminating the grapes in these outrageous colors. Matt tells us this time is called “veraison” when the grapes begin to change colors. I love that they don’t change all at once. There is something metaphorical about this, like the way we change, in stages.
This image I cropped from one of the photos that Mike took, the first I’ve painted from one I did not shoot. Of the dozens we both took, this one jumped out the most clearly as the one I had to paint first! This painting was accepted in the 2008 California State Fair in their Art of the Vine exhibit. And a giclee print won second place in the 2008 Marin County Fair Fine Art Exhibit.
November 2007
