Reformed Radish / Jane Rowe

My intention to paint the oversize radishes from Joe's garden went from a morning studio exercise of 20 minute timed sessions to a finished painting. I'll try to describe how and why I ended up putting a frame on it and hanging it in a gallery instead of leaning it against the wall or wiping it down.

Image sent to Soupbones Gallery bloggers.

Reformed Radish, oil on panel, 12"x24"

With nothing particular in mind, but having a desire to put brush to canvas, I found myself casting about the refrigerator for veggies to place in a shadow box. There they were--Radishes, really large radishes, about 12 inches or so long--.no leaves--stark, colorful things, wonderful. I headed to the studio with my find. An aside to all this is that my husband Joe grows a lot of veggies and has a CSA. I frequently find unusual things from his garden in our refrigerator or he leaves little offerings of things he's found on our property in my studio. When my studio is in order I find them promptly, when it's not, it can take me days to find his contributions. So now, back to the radish painting. I put the radishes in a shadow box, spent less than a minute placing them and adjusting the light and proceeded to lay paint out on my pallet. I just wanted to paint--not create a masterpiece. No time to waste and I squeeze out ultramarine blue, titanium white viridian green, cadmium yellow light and dark, cadmium orange, alizeran crimson, and violet dioxazine--block in with burnt umber. Got it ready and working now, set the timer for 20 minutes, then another 20, then another 20, then no more timer. After an hour break or so, back to the easel to take a look. At this point I think I sent an image to other soupbonegallery bloggers. Comments back: you didn't think much about the background did you--oh right, and correct, I didn't; two lovers dancing in space or something like that--what? Yes, they are somewhat suggestive of anatomical parts that shall go unnamed, but what's that? an idea, Oh no, here I go in another direction. I'm reading "Caravaggio A Life Sacred and Profane" by Graham-Dixon and re-reading "The Body of Raphael Peale"by Nemerov, both of which artists, I find inspiring. Caravaggio for his bold compositions, disregard for convention and his use of light and dark. Raphael's Venus Rising from the Sea-A Deception is one of the first paintings I fell in love with as a child and his paintings of roasts and chops delight me. Alright, so now I working the radish idea in my head and talking to Peale and Merisi. They suggested that I add fig leaves, though I'm sure neither one of them would have utilized the convention. Hmm, fig leaves--its the dead of winter, but okay let's see what I can find. Lo and behold, lots of very brown, wet leaves piled under the trees. I need green leaves, bright fresh green leaves and to a garden book I go. A week or so later and after a lot of thought and angst, I'm back in the studio. Time to paint the fig leaves. An hour later, I'm done. Sign it and throw a frame on that thing and take it to the gallery.