I like onions. I like to paint onions. You might have started to notice. They are sensual, and strong, and shapely, and subtle, and lovely pieces of everyday life. They add elegance and some sophistication to almost anything you pick up and place nearby; here an oil bottle and a jar of spice.
This is a backlit study I painted with my class; cool up-facing planes, and juicy, warm shadows; and the hot glow of the oil bottle. Combine the three; and it's that wonderful cooking smell you love to come home to....
Did you ever see the movie "Always"? Richard Dreyfus, Holly Hunter, with cameo by Audrey Hepburn. It's a beautiful movie about love, grief, hope - wrapped up in a story about the men and women who fight fires from the air. Holly Hunter invites a romantic interest over for dinner. She buys a boatload of takeout; then sautes onions and oil, tosses the takeout into her own serving dishes... dinner date success. Okay, a bit of deceit; but my point is that onions and oil are a wonderful combo to cook... or to paint.
It promises to be an unseasonably warm and sunny day for November in New England. I'll be teaching math today, but thought I'd post a demo I painted out in the sun on an unusually warm early spring day; well, maybe not-so-warm but that type of day you can't resist because the sun is bright, and the winter has been long, and maybe, just maybe, if you hunker down in a sheltered spot you'll feel more warmth than chill. Maybe.
We set up these glorious spanish onions on tables in the sunshine; to get the class accustomed to the rapid changes in shadow patterns outdoors. I loved the combination of reds, and the glowingly warm shadows; and the surprising Medusa-like quality of the design. Generally speaking, my goal is NOT to have surprises in the design of a painting; I discover those as I make thumbnail sketches, and eliminate the unintended. However, once in a while I get a surprise. My students got the point; watched the shadows move; learned to block in the patterns quickly; and had great results.
$150 plus $10 s&h
