Day 102
Study: Mangos
56 x 35 cm | Oil on Board
(Beginning)
Finally got around to the easel this afternoon. Had to get some gardening chores out of the way before another intensive week of painting and then a trip away this coming weekend. In the interest of time, I stopped at the nearest fruit stand which made for both a brief and shocking errand. As I selected just the right watermelon for today's study - from the 1 and 1-half on display - I excitedly skipped to the tills imagining how I might slice and backlight it, only to discover I didn't have enough change on me to cover the - £5.00(!) - he was asking for it. That's right £5 - which is about $10 US, depending on your conversion factor. I said "sorry, too much, I'll take it back out and get something a little less extravagant." With obvious room to haggle the guy at the till says "boss, this one, for you I make £4.50." Shaking my head as I head out to gently replace it in the bin, I'm thinking to myself - If I had that kind of money to drizzle away on a slice of watermelon to paint doesn't he think I'd buy myself some bootlaces from his "basic needs shelf" instead of the raffia macromé that's currently dangling over my soles? I then spotted 2 tomatos for a price reflecting the jingle in my pocket. Paid for those and left, but not before noticing the shop next store had these plump petit mango's glissening away for a relative song. Done. Getting the panel up and resolving the colour set-up was strangely not very straightforward. Eventually started ragging stuff in place to set up the viscous maneuvering tomorrow. The moon is waxing full before my eyes. I surely hope I've learned something from my last mango experience, or I could end up howling at shadows by this time tomorrow night, covered in that awkward colour located somewhere between the red and green on my palette - with sticky mango pulp all over my face.