Friday, March 13, 2009

Pair of Onions in transparent watercolor



This is a small (for me) painting  - only 4 inches by 6 inches, but amazingly, it still took me quite a bit of time to do! I thought that if I am to reach my goal by the end of 2009, I had better begin to paint some paintings that were smaller than 22.5 x 30.5 inches! When you are working in watercolor paints, and applying many glazes of color, it can take a LOOOONNNNGGGG time to complete a painting. What was my goal, you ask? Well, I hesitate to say as it is already the 13th of March - but it was to paint 50 paintings this year. Please don't gasp so deeply! Remember, in my mind a goal is just something to strive toward. I may never reach that goal, but I figured if I didn't set something in writing, I would mosey along, and not really achieve anything significant. And how many have I completed? (I KNEW you would ask that question!) I have now completed 3 paintings, and have 2 more on the go currently. However, the two I have started are 30" x 30" and 22.5 x 30.5 inches... both are very large. So, I will be working on smaller paintings at the same time as these two larger ones - in order to reach toward that goal by December 31st. 

Now that I have finished with these two onions - they are going into the next couple of days of meals. I read one person's tweet (she is a writer for a newspaper in the States), and she has issued a challenge to "eat to the bottom of your fridge for one week".  By this, she meant to not buy any groceries for a week, but instead, be really creative to eat everything you already have in your fridge (and in your cupboards). I thought that was a great idea, and so far this week, we have had Jambalaya, home made beef and vegetable soup, salmon, sweet potato and green beans and a meal with a sausage that was stuffed with spinach and feta cheese. I repeated the spinach as our vegetable, along with carrots and squash. Tonight will be leftovers, and on Saturday I will make homemade brown beans and whole wheat bread (which I usually make on Saturdays).  What do you think? Can you go a whole week without purchasing any groceries, and instead put together meals with what you already have in your cupboards and fridge? Lots of people were really creative - and there were some very unusual combinations being put together.  I am sure that is how some recipes came into existence, especially during the Depression. 

Speaking of Depression recipes - if you want to see a dear and amazing 93 year old woman sharing recipes that she grew up on in the Depression, go here to watch her cooking on YouTube! 

Happy weekend, everyone!

Pair of Onions is a transparent watercolor painting, 4" x 6" on 140 lb. Arches watercolor paper.  Pair of Onions,  is $49.00, unframed, plus shipping and handling or $56.00 in a clear glass clip frame, plus shipping and handling. If you are interested, you can e-mail me at: jogiesbrecht@gmail.com.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL! I go to the grocery once a month! It's an hour and a half away so I have to stock up. No way am I eating through my fridge and cupboards in one week. I'm already fat enough!

Dave Peters said...

This painting reached out and grabbed me. I love the colors.

paintandink said...

This is vibrant, as well -- never knew onions could be so pretty.

As for eating to the bottom of our fridge, we only go shopping every two weeks (we're not as far as K. Henderson, but just don't like shopping).

So our problem is we don't go grocery shopping enough, and we always run out of veggies by the time we shop again!

Unknown said...

Hi K.!
I laughed put loud in reading your comment! Ya - this challenge won't work too well for those who are once a month shoppers. Once would get kind of grumpy not eating for 3 weeks. :-)

Unknown said...

Hi Dave!
Thanks for the comment... how are you and Arlene doing? Any signs of spring up there in B.C.? Today it is 8 degrees - yes ABOVE zero! I do feel there may be hope of warmth sometime in the future after all.

Unknown said...

Hey Alison!
I KNOW what it feels like to run out of veggies before the next shopping trip! I have a friend who is in training for a half marathon run and losing weight at the same time, and her trainer has her eating 4 cups of vegetables per day... that's A LOT of veggies to go through. She must have to visit the store every 3 days! And to think that she pays this trainer to make her eat a ton of veggies!!!

Michelle Wiebe said...

Great idea to work small scale alongside large scale - this will result in more tasty art! :)

Unknown said...

Yup - tasty as I paint then consume! If I get on a roll, I might gain an extra roll- can't waste any of these yummy food props you know! :-)

Michelle Wiebe said...

Thats why you switch to flowers every once and a while. ;)

Unknown said...

What do you mean, Michelle? I shouldn't EAT the flowers I paint??? Why didn't you tell me that long before now? No wonder I had such a hard time digesting the sunflowers!!!!

Anonymous said...

beautifull work,love the transperancy in ur work.

Unknown said...

Thank you Tohida! I have visited your blog, and have enjoyed your contemporary art - you have a wonderful sense of color! Hope to talk to you again. :-)