I think I've mentioned it before but after a marathon painting period, I sometimes go into a creative slump where I don't want to see another canvas, paintbrush or tube of paint! Well, it's happened this time too but I was determined to keep painting through it.
We planted a new-to-us variety of that old Southern staple, okra, and it's gorgeous! Really, it's gorgeous. It's a beautiful variegated maroon color with bits of lime green in it. It's not often that mundane garden veggies inspire me to paint them but did I mention that this okra is gorgeous?
That's why I chose a few pods of it to try to paint through this slump. I know I haven't done it justice. Reds are notoriously hard to shade properly - if you add white, you get pink instead of a lighter shade of red. You can supposedly add yellow to lighten but that doesn't always work either so I just did the best I could with it. It was a learning piece and I wasn't expecting a masterpiece so wasn't all that disappointed when I didn't achieve one!
Another reason I wanted to paint is that I received some new paint from an order I placed a while ago. I've been painting in alkyd oils for a while now and I really like them so I ordered some replacement (& new) colors in various brands so I could compare them. They only just arrived yesterday so I'll let you know what I think about them in another post after I've had time to play with them a bit more.
In the meantime, I'll be in the studio painting!
