Monday, September 03, 2007

Figs

Figs
Oil on canvas panel 5 x 7
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I am determined to find my legs again in oil paints so did this little piece last night and today of some Mission figs that I bought. I had drawn the curtains to block out the hot sun on me as I painted and the resulting light set the scene.

I love the feel and smell of oil paints and how they flow from the brush onto the canvas. I need more practice to get back to speed again I know, but am moving in the right direction.

I was researching the great surge of painting a day artists that have evolved since 2004 and wondering just how many of them succeed in their goal and how many actually sell their little paintings. From what I have seen, there is about a fairly low success rate in actually producing paintings on a regular basis and in having them actually sell. I think that can be comparable to most activities, including blogs. For blogs statistics show that many do not make it past the three month mark. The same seems true for daily painting production too.

The need and want factors are what push people to succeed.

The proper way to eat a fig, in society,
Is to split it in four, holding it by the stump,
And open it, so that it is a glittering, rosy, moist, honied, heavy-petalled four-petalled flower.
Then you throw away the skin
Which is just like a four-sepalled calyx,
After you have taken off the blossom with your lips.

But the vulgar way
Is just to put your mouth to the crack, and take out the flesh in one bite.

Every fruit has its secret.

The fig is a very secretive fruit.
As you see it standing growing, you feel at once it is symbolic:
And it seems male.
But when you come to know it better, you agree with the Romans, it is female.
Figs
By D.H. Lawrence

6 comments:

"JeanneG" said...

I have eaten figs many times before but never ate the skin. When at my brother's house, his wife was eating some skin and all. Who knew you could? Not me.

Jeanette Jobson said...

I didn't eat fresh figs until about a year ago, we just couldn't get them here. Then I fell in love with them. Skin and all.

Stacy said...

Your fig painting is lovely! I've never eaten a fig, unless those fig filled cookies count.

Making A Mark said...

Do you remember Alan Bates quoting Lawrence in the film Women in Love - when they're having lunch in the garden at Hermione's "country cottage"?

I'd love to see you do more in oils Jeanette

I too wonder about the fate of the daily painters who jumped on the bandwagon. I've had a draft blog post set up for about six months now on just that topic. It's about a year since it all took off - I wonder how many of them are still at it.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Stacy you should try a fresh fig, they're wonderful and very unique.

Katherine, I haven't seen the film, but then I rarely watch movies. Its a patience thing, I can't sit still that long. I watch snippets of films but rarely sit and watch one beginning to end.

I'm studying some oil painters now to get my 'mojo' back. I enjoy the process of oil painting, messy as it is. But that's part of the appeal.

Anonymous said...

You can bring this one up with you when you come out west.

Sorcha