"Sweet Georgia Grown" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on paper, 14 x 7". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.
Sometimes the paint flows, and sometimes it doesn’t. This was one of those weeks when the paint was not my friend. When I saw the reference photo on Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes From Different Folks painting challenge, I thought it would be an easy assigment after the complicated Amish farm scene. I thought I could blow through it in three hours or less.
Oh, silly me.
Here are a few images taken along the way:
The drawing in pen. Not worried about being neat, because most of it will be covered with paint eventually.
Starting to put some transparent color down, keeping it sloppy. All the veges get a coat of cad yellow before I layer on the other colors. Reds and greens have a nice glow when painted over yellow.
The colors in the onions looked pretty good in this step.
But I couldn’t keep it fresh as I added more detail. There must be twenty layers of paint on those onions, every one of them an attempt to “fix” the previous layer. Instead of getting better, things got progressively worse as the acrylic paint piled on. I find it hard to mix light colors in acrylics, because they dry so much darker and yellower than they look on the palette. It’s like painting blind because I have to guess how it will look when it’s dry. Oils would have been a better choice.
In the end, I didn’t finish the onions… I simply gave up on them.
The upside is that they have plenty of texture. 
I learned a lot about tomatoes. Not having painted tomatoes much, I assumed they were red, but as I worked, I discovered oranges, fushias, and green. Lots of green especially on the stem end.
The corn silks didn’t turn out well (OMG, did you see Karin’s silks? Such flow!), but I was happy with the husks. I barely did anything to them – I spent maybe twenty minutes total – yet they look okay. I love it when that happens.
The finished piece. Or is it? I’m still playing with cropping. Since the corn silks didn’t turn out well, the right side of the painting is dead, so I’ll probably cut it off.
As always, thanks for stopping by for another episode of “As The Paint Turns.”
Lesley Spanos
Lesley Spanos is a painter working in Indiana, USA.Translator
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OMG! I love this! I didn’t do this challenge because I couldn’t get inspired by the veggie platter. Now I see truly talented artists can turn anything into a visual masterpiece. I think this is one of my favorite renditions!
Leslie, I think this painting is MARVELOUS! The onions are just so real looking. You might not be happy because you’ve been looking at it too much!
An amazing painting, Leslie. BEAUTIFUL.
Beautiful Leslie, you really brought depth and interest to these veggies. I love the little dashes of colour in the corn husks, and the violets in the onions.
You might not be completely happy with it but we are !. That onions is beautiful. Really great.
Simply terrific, Lesley. I was shocked to read that you had trouble with this. You can’t tell by looking at this beautiful painting.
Beautiful rendition. Love all the colors in the Onions.
Phil
Absolutely stunning work, the colors and details are exquisite!
Such a great painting. I love the details.
I could not get inspired to do this one.
This is beautiful! I read your narrative on the work that was involved in creating this, and all I can say is that every stroke was worth it – this is just gorgeous.
Sweet! Can’t say no more! The colours harmonize beutifully!
I completely love your style on this, Lesley! The reflected colors on the far right onion are gorgeous!
Such attention to detail, absolutely beautiful!
Hey guys, thanks for all the comments! After I sent the image off to Karin yesterday, I went to the supermarket, and guess what I saw in the produce section under their chichi designer lighting? Carefully arranged bushel baskets of vidalia onions, right next to bushel baskets of sweet Georgia corn! If they’d had a basket of tomatoes it would have looked like a tribute to DSFDF. I never paid much attention to vidalias, so I had a major “duh” moment when I saw them. I thought I was painting yellow onions, but actually they’re multicolored, with patterns of gold, sienna, and – most surprisingly – a green which is almost as green as the corn husks. I brought some home to photograph and study, and maybe paint.
It is such a lovely painting, so delicate!
And I was very amused by your comment on your work.
I think your veggies are wonderful and I happen to really like your tomatoes too! Thanks for the lovely comment on my blog.
I liked your comment that it feels good when something just turns out easily like your corn husks. It feels good to be in a groove where you’re just able to paint what you see doesn’t it???
I really like all of your paintings and I will be back for more.
Absolutely love your painting Lesley. And, thank you for showing the in-progress shots. Love to see how you work.
I think it’s a lovely piece–it really caught my eye as I was scrolling through all the entries. I especially like the reflected color on the corn husks—a very nice touch!
I think it’s spectacular! I came to see it by way of Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes blog.
I see that you have the Virtual Sketch Date on your sidebar. It carries on under the name Monthly Sketch Project.
Hope you’ll give it a try!
http://monthlysketchproject.blogspot.com/
Hi…this is really wonderful..I just came across this one on DSFDF…and it has some really wonderful colours and amazing details.
Wonderful Work…!!