MARKET FLOWER STALL

I love the license a painter has to change reality. I am painting a flower stall with no shelter, but I love the umbrellas elsewhere in the market. VOILA! An umbrella sits over the flowers. Change the color of the man’s shirt? Why not.

MARKET PRODUCE

Last time I painted at the market, I laid in my background first, but found that there were too many people in the way for me to paint the produce. (And much of it was gone.) This time, I take a tip from my mistake, and paint the produce first. It is not a perfect solution. Because I have all this lovely produce, I am reluctant to put in more people. But the painting is colorful and fun.

MARKET BOOTHS

It’s a pleasant warm day, not too hot, not too cold, and I’m staying comfortable under my market umbrella while I paint the colorful busy marketplace. I am putting lots of people in this painting. My strategy for painting people is quick looks. A hat from one, a shirt from another, looking at light and dark patterns, I can block them in. It is getting too crowded to see the tomatoes through the people. I wait for a gap and snatch the colors on the fly.

A woman comes by whose daughter is working at doggie day care. She wants a painting as a memento. Her daughter arrives, and I ask her where she’d like to stand in the painting. She points to a spot. I sketch her in, pink shirt, checked pants, blonde flipped hair, and pink shoes. I tone down the guy in the red shirt behind her, and sign the painting. They are delighted. (The painting is gone, no photo.)

I end my lovely day at the market with brightening up a painting I did here last year with some flowers. Here it is.