23 July 2013

Following the masters

There is a long and honored tradition in Art World of copying the works of the masters to improve one's own skills. I suppose I could try to hide under the skirt of that tradition here, but...I have to confess that this picture is arrant plagiarism, although it's also intended as admiration.

I needed to paint some onions to go with a recipe in the library cookbook, and was having a hard time thinking of an interesting way to do it. Then I saw Cathy Holtom's post on Down a Dusty Lane, and her idea of painting three different-colored onions together was so wonderful that I decided to try it for myself.

Hers is infinitely more skilled (gorgeous use of color, especially, and they just have that slick and papery feel to them that I found nearly impossible to duplicate), but this was a great exercise. Now maybe I will try some other experiments with it until I find a way to make it more legitimately mine, but thanks, Cathy! I hope you're not offended.