"Stripes and Solids," 5x7, oil on gesso board

Sold.

Our local organic supplier listed striped heirloom tomatoes, and I thought it would be fun to paint one. I thought it contrasted well with a solid tomato (also organic, I'll have you know). This painting looks curiously classic. I think it's the glossiness.

"Daddy's Hands," 5x7, oil on gesso board

NFS.

This is an old manual screwdriver/drill used by someone born about 100 years ago. He's been gone just a few years -- he lived to be 95 -- but he taught his kids and grandkids to be pretty handy. This tool shows wear, and I love that. The painting is a gift for one of his kids. Tricky composition, albeit interesting. The ellipse created by the swivel (?) was tough, and so were the shadows. And the woodgrain. But if you can see a shape and paint it on your surface, the painting grows. The trick is allowing yourself to see past your assumptions.

"Salt Shaker," 5x7, oil on gesso board

SOLD. You know, other daily painters have done salt shakers, but theirs were round, not faceted. The facets make it much tougher, and pretty interesting, too.

"Leaf," 8x10, oil on gesso board

Sold. I live where I get to hike pretty much every day. I love this. The dog loves this. I often see leaves that seem to contain colors that don't appear in nature, which is silly, of course. Leaves are interesting to paint. If you really, really try to do all the detail, then you have to paint the whole skeletal structure, which is a mind-boggling concept. Instead, they make wonderful inspiration for impressionistic pieces.

"Green Moth on White Tile," 5x7, oil on gesso board

I saw a beautiful green moth on the ceramic tile in our house and took a few pictures. I liked the composition of this one, with the strong diagonals. I also enjoyed making the white tiles really layered; the top layer is kind of a glaze. It's shiny.

"Leggy Radishes," 6x6, oil on gesso board

NFS.

This is some of the organic produce we get. I composed this one pretty carefully. The challenge here was to give the radishes some oomph. They're pale, next to the dark bowl, and looked washed out. The shadow helped, as did some nice texturing using an unfolded paperclip.

"Half a Tomato," 4x4 oil on gesso board

I noticed that I was over tweaking my paintings, so I decided to make something small and quick and did this one. I succeeded, then followed it up with tweaking. Interestingly, sometimes you have to modify reality; the dark streak that runs down the middle of the tomato really is there and, in fact, is darker, but I had to lighten it up because it looked strange.