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My husband, Joe came up with this idea. It was mid-August, 2008 and I had just come back from the farmer’s market with some ripe figs and gorgeous red grapes to add to 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 that he’d bought as my birthday gift the year we went to Italy. It was from a shop owned by a young woman faence artist in the small Tuscan town of Montaione. I fell in love with it. We’d already bought “the” piece of pottery we’d planned to buy on the trip, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I asked if it could be my birthday present – he said yes. It ended up arriving from Italy ON my birthday. Later he told me that one of the reasons I’m in his life is that I respond to things like that. He’d barely noticed it in the shop with all the other pottery and because of how I did, now he gets to enjoy it at home.
Making the painting was a trial. The ivy was really dark in the original photo and hard to make out. I was painting half-blind and, not being very good at making stuff up, I wasn’t liking what was happening. I was over half way done with the background and put the whole piece of paper in the kitchen sink and washed off the paint – which was very empowering! I took a new photo under better light, photoshopped the new ivy background in to the original, redrew the ivy and began again. The tablecloth was challenging too – without a decent drawing I had to again make it up.
Then the fun started. Painting the plate was a delight. I kept imagining the moment when the ceramic artist had originally painted on the glazes, appreciating re-tracing her brush strokes. This painting speaks to me of the generosity of the earth, another artist half a world away and my husband.
August 2009
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