I’m writing this with purple hands in a steaming stone room. It is going to 38 with humidex today and, alas, my studio is outside of the house’s footprint. There is an air-conditioning split just on the other side of this door but it exists only as an idea at this point. So this blog will be a short one.
I write in praise of the person who developed the spineless blackberry. We previously had raspberries and have the scars to prove it. But four or five years ago I picked up a blackberry plant which boasted the absence of thorns. This once, advertising proved correct! The plant thrived, with seven foot arching and miraculously smooth canes you could roller-skate if you were so inclined. It took five minutes this morning to pick a quart of black beauties and there are still hundreds more to ripen.
Frustrated gardener that I am, harvesting anything at all is a thrill, and to get blackberries without blood loss hits the jackpot. So, to whomever the botanist is or was, I send sincere wishes for an eternity in paradise.
This is one of my first paintings. Jon and I were on an isolated island with limited subject matter so I stole the image from a card. I always work from original digitals now but at the time at least I recognized a great composition. It was the first time I had painted globes or any sort and this unripe pink berry made it clear that every rounded seed capsule had to be painted separately and given a spot of light. Finding highlights whether on grapes or river stones thereafter became a happy hunt.
And now I am going to pull the rest of the leaves out of my pony tail and go to the kitchen to claim my prize. Purple teeth and air conditioning ahoy.
I write in praise of the person who developed the spineless blackberry. We previously had raspberries and have the scars to prove it. But four or five years ago I picked up a blackberry plant which boasted the absence of thorns. This once, advertising proved correct! The plant thrived, with seven foot arching and miraculously smooth canes you could roller-skate if you were so inclined. It took five minutes this morning to pick a quart of black beauties and there are still hundreds more to ripen.
Frustrated gardener that I am, harvesting anything at all is a thrill, and to get blackberries without blood loss hits the jackpot. So, to whomever the botanist is or was, I send sincere wishes for an eternity in paradise.
This is one of my first paintings. Jon and I were on an isolated island with limited subject matter so I stole the image from a card. I always work from original digitals now but at the time at least I recognized a great composition. It was the first time I had painted globes or any sort and this unripe pink berry made it clear that every rounded seed capsule had to be painted separately and given a spot of light. Finding highlights whether on grapes or river stones thereafter became a happy hunt.
And now I am going to pull the rest of the leaves out of my pony tail and go to the kitchen to claim my prize. Purple teeth and air conditioning ahoy.
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