Colorful Trees

Here is another new painting from just a few days ago. I was inspired by a couple artists I saw at an art fair in Indianapolis so I thought I would paint something similar. It's done in acrylic on canvas and is 24 x 30 inches. Again here, the photo is a little off with some reflection on the left and some darkness on the right, but the basic idea is there.

Big Sky

Welp, I haven't posted for a long time, but just for fun here is a painting I did recently of some big sky somewhere. I can't remember which road trip really or where it was. Montana? South Dakota? Somewhere more south? There are a lot of big western skies like this. The color or light is a little off in the photo, but this gives you the main idea.
It's in acrylic and somewhere around 2 x 3 feet on masonite. It's nice to paint for myself.

American Purple Top Yellow Rutabaga

Here's one from this winter: American Purple Top Yellow Rutabaga

Green Goliath Contours

Sometimes I wish I could do whatever I wanted for these illustrations. This one, I would love to leave just like this. Originally, I had just done the illustration as the colored-in area, but they asked for more leaves because this broccoli tends to have a bunch of nice leaves on the plant. So, I painted in the contours of more leaves and I just love the contrast of the lines verses the finished painting. It makes the original look even more real and three dimensional. But alas, I will now finish it. (And I will also probably soon post some of what I have been up to in this long period of no posting).

North Georgia Candy Roaster Winter Squash - Another Forgotten Post

Again a post I meant to publish about a year ago and left as a draft:
Here is a strange looking squash that I painted a week or so ago, North Georgia Candy Roaster:

The SESE catalog tells me "Early 1900s Appalachian Thanksgiving feasts included "candy roaster pie" instead of pumpkin pie." These can grow up to 18 inches long and 6 inches in diameter. 

Broad Leaved Batavian Endive - Forgotten Post

I just saw this post and another that I meant to put up a while ago, but left as drafts. Funny. Here it is from sometime in April a year ago.
Here's another salad green from about a week or so ago, Broad Leaved Batavian Endive:

Verona Red Radicchio

Here is one of my newest favorites that I did  about a month ago, Verona Red Radicchio:

This beautiful veggie just lends itself to painting with it's deep burgundy leaves juxtaposed against the white curvy veins. As I was painting it my friend, Ali, asked me what is radicchio? What is it related to? And well, it's funny. It seems a lot like red cabbage, but it's not the same thing. It is a chicory, sometimes known as Italian chicory, which seems strange to me as it looks so far from those purple flowers out in fields or by the road with their long, green, serrated leaves. And while you might cook up a cabbage and eat it sauteed or with corned beef, you would probably just eat radicchio in a salad.
Here is something really interesting that I just read in a New York Times article. (Of course, it is only interesting to me because I have never grown it before.)
"Like Belgian endive, Verona and Treviso radicchios are the products of a complicated cultivation. After the first heads are grown they are cut back, leaving only a root from which a new head forms in the cold and dark of a growing shed.

In the process, endive turns white and radicchio turns dark red, its white veins standing out in gaudy splendor. If radicchio is not grown in this way, all a gardener will get for his or her troubles are long, thin, dark-green and very bitter leaves. The second growing, called blanching, also produces a waxy leaf with a comparatively mild flavor."