Deer Tongue Lettuce

Here's is another illustration from a month or so ago. This one is of Deer Tongue

Lettuce is currently my favorite thing to paint. Although sometimes if it is really wrinkly the details can drive me nuts, I just think it always comes out looking really neat. I love the texture of the leaves and how, even though most lettuce is mostly green leaves, they are all so different.

Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli

Here is an illustration I did a little more than a month ago of Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli.

Does anyone else have trouble spelling broccoli every time? I had to check and see how to spell it because I always want to put two l's instead of two c's.
I don't normally think of broccoli as a particularly Italian thing, but Wikipedia would have me believe it so. It reads as follows:
"Broccoli was derived from cultivated leafy cole crops in the Northern Mediterranean in about the 6th century BCE. Since the Roman Empire, broccoli has been considered a uniquely valuable food among Italians. Broccoli was brought to England from Antwerp in the mid-18th century by Peter Scheemakers. Broccoli was first introduced to the United States by Italian immigrants but did not become widely known there until the 1920s."

Early Wonder Tall Top Beet

Here is a illustration I did a month or so ago of early wonder tall top beet. I really like the way this one turned out. As I was working on the beets and before I put the greens in it reminded me of some strange anatomy illustration of a bunch of bleeding hearts, which I think suits the beet. As Tom Robbins says they are the most passionate of vegetables. :)

Sweet Banana Peppers, AKA Long Sweet Hungarian

So here is the first veggie illustration I did after quite a break. It was a few weeks ago. I think the break was actually really good. It made me miss painting veggies and I became obsessed with detail again. It seems I am back to illustrating because it is interesting rather than to just get it done.
And soon I get to start working on next year's catalog cover! Hooray!

I'm Alive and the 2013 SESE Cover

It's been a long time and lots has happened and I am not going to write about it all. :) It is funny how when things are the most interesting I don't have time or energy to write about them and that it's only when things get a little more monotonous that I feel like posting or have much to post on here. So here is the beginning of me posting again. It will not be every day and I may not say as much about each painting or drawing as I said before, but there will be posts. :)
So here is something I worked on some time after our hitch hiking adventure, The 2013 Southern Exposure Catalog Cover. It was inspired by my past covers and also a wonderful children's book illustrator, Trina Schart Hyman.

Hitchhiking Day 1

I am not going to post art today, but here are a few pictures of our hitchhiking beginnings:

Thank you Kimi for the pictures and our first ride. So far we have made it from East of Nashville to Mohawk, Tennessee, which is a little over 200 miles. It has taken us four rides so far and all of them have been with nice people. The first ride we waited 2 and a half hours for! We thought maybe it wasn't going to work and then suddenly a middle aged couple pulled up and took us forty miles east. The next ride we waited only 10 minutes for. This driver was a high school biology teacher up until December when he got fed up with his boss and quit, and now he happily organizes softball tournaments and also has a farm. He took us about 35 miles more. The next ride we waited only 5 minutes for! This driver was a very little and skinny Vietnam vet who had Parkinson's disease and a lot of other health problems he listed off. He told us the last thing the doctor told him was that he had three years to live, but that he didn't care because he is just going to enjoy the time he has and that no man can tell him truly how long he has. He was a little hard to talk to because he was very hard of hearing. He drove a car that I would probably never have pictured myself in and of which he was very proud. It was a bright orange Dodge Charger, (if that means anything to you), and it was custom made for him. He took us east of Knoxville, which was quite a ways. And then we waited about a half hour for this last ride, which got us to Mohawk. It was with two guys in their thirties who were fun and friendly and who had been friends since they grew up two miles down the street from each other.  One of them kept telling us that we have to go to Ashville because he loved it and we'd fit right in. They travel around a lot together for work. They gave us a beer and dropped us at this motel 8 right by the highway so we will be in a good position to start off tomorrow. What was pretty neat is that the people from the last three rides all asked to exchange email addresses, (which we did), so that we could one day meet up again, or so that they could wish my mom a happy birthday, (the Vietnam vet shared his birthday with my mom), or so we could keep them updated on our trip. After today, it seems to me like more people should hitch hike and that it really isn't a big deal or scary at all. But maybe it's just working out for us because we look sweet and innocent and trustworthy.

Hill Country Red Okra

Here is an older illustration again from, I think, around 2009 or 2010 of Hill Country Red Okra:

I just read on wikipedia that people eat not only the seed pods, but also the leaves either cooked or raw in salads. This is something I'll have to try. I've had a lot of okra, but never the leaves.
So, starting now I will probably not be posting everyday. We are now leaving for hitch hiking on Tuesday and I imagine it being more difficult than it is worth to post every day, but I will surely still post often. I just realized today after trying to plant a bunch of stuff in the garden before we go that I am probably going to be tired and busy in new and different ways so I didn't want to keep up the promise of blogging everyday. So, I guess savor these okra for a few days and I will post again soon.