Sunday, September 16, 2012

A painter's peaches

 Kitchen table peaches
Watercolour and watercolour crayon
 on drawing paper
10.6 x 13.8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2012

 I may add a dark wash over the table in this one.
I listened to an author on CBC saying he wasn't a
kitchen table story teller, and thought today I am a
kitchen table painter.  What could I do?  Here was this
beauty claiming me.  At the end of the day my son,
Sam made a delicious dinner at one end of the table,
while I painted, both of us happy with the arrangement.
Then I put my paints away and we ate dinner. 

Last year I froze lots of peaches at the right time
of year.  If you live in the south you may not get
this. But the taste of summer peaches in February is
like a miracle.  We just have a tiny fridge freezer,
but I crammed zip-log bags of peaches around every
other bag and box of frozen goodies.

This year I missed the ideal window, because I was
sick.  But yesterday I was determined to head to the
farmer's market and try to get some end-of-season
sweet peaches.  The vendors were selling the most
beautiful peaches as "cooking peaches", but in fact
they were sour, and punk.  Yet so gorgeous
that I have done two sketch watercolours to record
their burgundy and peach magnificence.  Bad on the
inside, but gorgeous on the outside.  So glad I bought
some of the ones the woman said she preferred.  Fuzzy
and odd on the outside, delicious and juicy inside.
You may not be able to tell a peach by its cover, but
you still may want to paint it.

Have a giving-everything-a-try day.

4 comments:

Kim Rempel said...

Yes! We do the same thing with peaches here. And enjoy them all winter over crepes and waffles Sunday mornings. I missed out too - only got about 6 or 7 baggies in the freezer. But they will be thoroughly enjoyed when the snow flies. Again, I love your wonderful painting!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful watercolour Barbara:) mmm i love peaches too

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Kim,

I'm just waiting for the good ones to ripen. Maybe we should have a peach party mid-winter.

XO Barbara

Barbara Muir said...

Thanks Sally,

I told my son Sam the other day that the peach is my favorite fruit, with the apple a close second. That's unless it's strawberries or watermelon for dessert. When do you go to Halifax?

XO Barbara

Portrait Artist

My photo
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I paint and draw on commission and for shows. To commission a portrait, or purchase one of my paintings please contact me at: barbara.muir@sympatico.ca
A major highlight in my career? Drawing Oprah Winfrey live via Skype for her show "Where in the Skype are you? Galleries: Studio Vogue Gallery, Toronto, Canada. The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York City. Gallery at the Porch Door, Kingston, Canada. Your positive comments on this blog mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you!