Lemons

Lemons – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

One of my goals for the new year was to begin a daily practice of making art.  I’ve started sketching more and I try to have a painting on my easel most of the time.  Here is a still life I recently completed,  Lemons.

When I first started painting years ago, I painted several pears in this blue bowl.   It’s helpful to start a painting from  a real scene, you can focus on what you see, how the light effects the colors of the objects.  I felt it would be a good exercise to do some still lifes where I could actually see what I am painting.

I chose lemons this time around as lemons are one of my favorite fruits.   I use them daily to make marinaded salads and add them to tea.   Their bight cheerful yellow color seems to match this time of year when everything is waking up.

It was a fun challenge and I am fairly pleased.   In keeping with my goal, I’ve stared sketching a scene  for a new painting, another still life.

Lemons in Mom’s Antique Yellow-ware Mixing Bowl

Lemon’s in Mom’s Yellow-ware Mixing Bowl – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

     I’ve just completed Lemons in Mom’s Antique Yellow-ware Mixing Bowl in honor of my Mom’s birthday which is on January 27th.   It was fun to paint a formal still life that I think she would have liked.  She had several antique yellow-ware bowls and used them daily in her cooking.  I remember mixing many batches of chocolate chip cookie batters in her large bowls.

     Mom loved to cook and so did Dad.  These days they would have been known as “foodies.”  Our life growing up revolved around food.  Together they made breakfast every weekend which varied from waffles or corncrakes to homemade biscuits, scrambled eggs and grits.  It seemed like most weekends they had dinner parties at which Mom tried out new recipes from her women’s magazines and cookbooks.

     The holidays were always about the special meals.  From black-eye peas, greens and cornbread on New Years; leg of lamb and mint sauce on Easter; and barbeque pork from Dad’s big smoker outside on the 4th of July.   On our beach vacations we had seafood feasts nightly.  Christmas was all about the food.  From the oranges, special cheeses, plum pudding and Virginia ham that arrived on our doorstep to all the special dishes and desserts that mom and dad would prepare.  I have fond memories of going with Dad to the seafood store to pick up our yearly bushel of oysters. On Christmas Eve we had oyster stew, which my sisters and I hated when young but grew to love later.  The big event was Dad making the traditional Virginian eggnog in one of the big yellow-ware bowls.

     Mom was a northern girl and she served cow tongue, corn beef and sauerkraut, and ham with  spoon bread  and lots of casseroles and steamed vegetables that still retained their color.  My southern friends all thought our food was weird. I was not a picky eater and loved it all.  Through Mom I learned that cooking is fun and to enjoy all kinds of food.  Thanks Mom!