Saturday, July 11, 2015

Cecropia Moth WIP 2



I always seriously underestimate how long it takes me to paint something and this Cecropia moth is no exception!  But I want to do an exceptional job on this painting.  Well, I want to do well on every painting but this poor thing lives only a few days and during that time she can't eat or drink as she has no mouth.  She must attract a mate quickly, have glorious (I fervently hope so anyway) sex then lay her eggs and die.  She's a beautiful creature and I really feel I must give my utmost to honor her brief life.

Even with slow and steady, I probably could have had the painting finished by now but we had a gigantic wave of cucumbers and tomatoes ripen which I had to do something with.  I froze the tomatoes, and made another jar of my favorite fermented pickles only this time I altered the recipe a bit.

Alas, I could've added a bit more garlic and dill and cut back just a fuzz on the whole black pepper corns.  I like my heat to come from the cayenne pepper flakes and the taste of the black pepper is just a tad too strong in this batch.  Getting something just right is a game of trial and error and this last jar of pickles isn't really all that bad - just not my idea of a perfect fermented pickle! 

So, let me quote Scarlett O'Hara a bit and just say "Tomorrow's another day!" both for pickles and for painting!

2 comments:

Sue Clinker said...

Hi Jan
Just back from a short holiday and catching up with blogposts. I'm very impressed with the progress you've made so far on the moth - such a beautiful variety but one we don't see in Europe/UK.

Good luck with the freezing/pickling. I like black pepper corns but agree that some foods require different sources of heat/kick.

just working backwards through blogposts now so .. more later. Suex

Jan said...

So glad you're home, Sue, was wondering if you were.

Thanks for the kudos on the moth. I'm slow and am being even more cautious/slower with this painting but hope to finish it soon.

Whenever I try a new recipe like the one for the fermented pickles, I have to tweak it a bit to fit my taste - it's just a bit of trial and error til it's balanced to suit me.