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Eggplant Epiphany

10"x 8" oil on linen panel
10"x 8" oil on linen panel

Does anything ever have to go wrong for you in order for something to go right? It took me a bit to think about what I wanted to do for the E category of Zero Point foods. At first, I was excited about the prospect of painting an egg because eggs previously had points! Then again, I'd never had escarole and it looked very much like lettuce. I decided against it and made a delicious WW soup recipe with it. I finally settled on eggplant, however, it brought me some new challenges. Not food challenges, I like eggplant and I found a delicious recipe on the WW app that was 2 points.

 

I was having painting problems. I got the eggplant, set it down and thought, well, that's not very attractive. I moved it around, I cut one in half then in quarters. I just didn't know how I wanted to compose it. The eggplant was not... inspiring me. It took me awhile to think about what to do, I mean I had to do the letter E! I finally realized I had been so caught up in what I was going to paint that I hadn't been thinking about how I was going to paint my subject matter. I had forgotten that the purpose of this exercise was not only to paint zero point foods but also to explore my painting. How was I going to do the composition? How was I going to work my brushstrokes? Do I want to be accurate and detailed or abstract and loose or maybe accurate and abstract? How do I want to explore colour? Is it high key (bright) or low key (dark)? Realistic colour or saturated colour? 

 

I wasn't really excited about the compositions I was coming up with so, I decided to focus on the colours I was using. I ended up using the  tertiary colours purple, green and orange since eggplant leans to the purple. As a painting this one isn't one of my favourites but I did have fun working with the colours and the harmony I was try to create.

 

In the end, I'm proud that I changed my perspective about how I was going to paint because not every painting is going to be easy. And, really, it's not much different than losing weight or keeping track of my food points. I've already had some days where I've stressed out about not keeping track properly or not getting in my exercise that day. Instead, I had to change my perspective about that as well. Yes, Colleen, you've kept track 6 out of the 7 days or.... you might have missed your walk today but there's a new day starting tomorrow. I needed to look at what I was doing right or what good came out of the challenge. Sometimes, we all need a little something wrong to get us to realign our thoughts and put us back in the right direction!

 

 


Comments

1 Response to Eggplant Epiphany

I absolutely love what you are doing! From your painting to your blogs.....great job!!!!


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