Boots, Pastries and Windmills

My snow boots are still sitting there waiting for me to finish the drawing. I seem to be reluctant--I haven't touched it since I touched it the first time. Is this a clue that the boots are symbolic of stuff I hate and why I cringed when I heard this morning there was a light dusting of the stuff in the upper corners of the state? Absolutely.

So when someone at the B party asked me yesterday what I painted and I said pastries and they said why? I thought it was a pretty damn good question. I said I have no idea. Then I started to think about why. I've never been a pastry fan; I skip over them at the sweet table--and usually skip the sweet table entirely. When my dad made me order dessert, because it came with the dinner when I was a kid, I'd order jello--or prunes, not ice cream or molton lava chocolate no flour cake. So why now in my life do I find pastries so appealing?

When I photographed those pastries in the case at the pastry shop this last summer I was drawn to their colors. They were rich, bright, pure and very happy. Painting is about color. They were also lined up in the trays in an orderly fashion on shelves, one above the other. The lighting was warm and inviting. But they still didn't make my mouth water with desire. Taking the photograph was satisfaction enough. It wasn't till I downloaded my photographs that I thought the sweets would make a good triptych and started drawing them. My attraction wasn't the sweets, it was the line up of those glorious colors and the stacking of the colorful trays that intrigued me, the artist/designer. --Just as it intrigued me in The Closet. I like the architectural relief aspects of painting things that stack on thick canvases where wall and cast shadows become one with the painted panels. Next B party I'll be ready.

Speaking of ordering food. A couple of weeks ago I took photos of the squash cart at an open air market. The colors and the grouping of the items were the prompt. Squash Windmill resulted from playing around with it in Publisher. I featured this photograph today because it's much more interesting than my tuna fish bowl, which is the drawing of the day. the bowl is an icon to remind me of one of the chores I have on my agenda. The top try was more successful than the bottom. Neither is terrific, but a better draw than snow boots.

Windmill will probably never become a painting. The photograph is good enough.