Present and Accounted For  oil   8x8.5
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Daffodils, jonquils, narcissus- they all refer to this beautiful flower floating in the nameless blue reaching for the light.  Very fun to paint-always a struggle painting the light white in the shadow. I'd like to paint this again but loosen up my edges.

Incoming Tide   oil  5.75x4.5

Egg painting number 11 of 12.

As I wrote last month- I'm writing a cookbook and plan to do a series of food paintings that are vaguely related to the recipes-just enough to give some structure to painting subject matter. I've been collecting recipes for a few years from a dear friend and fabulous cook- she is really gifted. The cookbook is called "A Year of Food Sex with Sam".

Here's the first egg recipe and a quote from Sam:
"Eggs are delicate, we treat them harshly.  They're the most delicious food and a pleasing shape."

How to boil an egg: 
Put the eggs in a pot with cold water.  Bring the water to a gentle boil and turn it off.  Do not cover the pot. Let them sit for 7 minutes and plunge the eggs into ice water. Voila, the perfect boiled egg.

Castaways  oil  5.75x4.5
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Egg painting number 10 of 12.  Eggs moving in and out and across the canvas.  How many ways are there to slice an egg? A surprisingly large number.

Crowded Harbor   oil   5.75x4.5
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Egg painting number 9 of 12. In the shadows I pushed the yellow both orange and green.

Afloat   oil   5.75 x 4.5
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Egg painting number 8 of 12.  I've kept the same color scheme as "follow the crowd" and played with the arrangement of shapes. I'm able to be a bit looser with each painting. A boiled egg is a surprisingly fragile thing.

Follow the Crowd  oil  5.75 x 4.5
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Egg painting number 7.  This one's boiled and cut up. It was fun to play with the shapes and shadows, creating movement with pieces of cut up egg.

There's a reason for the weird size.  I lived in China and had cradled wooden boxes made at one of the local art stores. We were working in the metric system. When I lived overseas I realized standard paper size is not 8.5 x 11.

Blue Glamour  oil 8x6
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I find the irises so compelling and so difficult to capture.  Perhaps it's the contrast between the light and the dark that makes it tricky. I like finding ways to express the lights in the shadow.

Star Burst  oil  6x8
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How much can I infer without directly stating it?  Sometimes I think I should do a painting and try to "nail" it.  And then paint another one and allow myself to abstract it.  I've even considered putting up two canvases side by side. After 25 years as a medical illustrator old habits die hard.  I'm very happy with the little purple flowers- merely inferred.

 Sliced  oil on cradled wooden box  8x6
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Painted this one with a student. Next week I'm going to start a new series based on a cookbook I'm writing. There will be many more vegetables in my future. This coming weeks I hope to be doing a bunch of plein air.