Description
My brother Mike and his wife Julie have just moved into a pilot’s row house in the Presidio. Originally built for army aviators, these houses have drop dead views of the Golden Gate bridge and the San Francisco Bay. But I’m hanging on to their sweet oasis in San Anselmo. Though they’ve been gone from there coming up on two years, I’ve still got images from their little garden to paint. So far, all my paintings of Zinfandel grapes and my big dahlia painting (Touched by the Sun) originated in that little garden behind their Crescent Road house. I took the image that has become this painting on a bright Saturday morning early in tomato season. This was just such a nice arrangement of the little tomatoes and their star-shaped sepals. And then – of course – the light! I started this painting last summer (2014) for a “Fuzzy Background” workshop – a day I will never, ever forget! I was frazzled working to get six students’ going on their drawings. Two hours had gone by and everyone was still waiting to see me demonstrate how to work with the paint as I’d told them about. There they all are standing around watching. All but one, this was their first experience of me. I wanted to use some Chromium Oxide Green paint right out of the tube and the cap was stuck. Being the impetuous Sagittarius that I am, I used my teeth to open it. The cap cracked and broke, squirting toxic paint IN MY MOUTH!!! I dashed to the bathroom, swished and spitted until there was no more green coming out. And then had to re-start. OMG!! It’s taken me a year to want to pick this painting back up again. Time is a great healer and it is tomato season again after all. There is a wonderful sense of satisfaction in finishing another painting that has been kicking around my studio like “that old thing.” It’s a sort of resurrection. I was in Dostal Studios – my framer – working with Matt – the designer – to order the frame in anticipation of it being completed. He said they looked like the Sun Gold variety of orange cherry tomatoes. I’m not sure there’s a way to know if this is actually the variety, or if Mike would even remember if I asked. But no matter – when Matt said it, I heard the “ding, ding, ding” – he gave me the name: Sungold.
August 2015
