This painting was a challenge. It was a commission, a continuation of a story I began in an earlier piece about the tomato plant that fairly took over my front yard. Maybe you remember it with the lovely girl in her front garden picking a basket full of ripe tomatoes. The assignment here was to place our tomato girl in her garden again but this time at night. I don’t have a lot of experience painting night scenes. This is where I landed.

It’s a mild full moon night, the lady of the house sits on the bench in her side yard holding her squirming cat. There’s no doubt about her green thumb. The wild tomato plant in the front yard was no fluke. In fact you can see it at the edges of the scene trying to find a place here too. The air is perfumed with roses, peonies, dogwoods, tulips, trout lilies, daffodils, and those little seedy things. There’s scarcely room for anything else, the gardening style here being one of wild abandon. The little stream adds soft background music while birds and animals rest. The house is welcoming, warm light from the open window.

This is only the third commission I’ve taken. The first one was a success all around, the second was a nightmare which made me hesitant to take this “Midnight” assignment. But the patron was happy to review a sketch and then let me run with it. I was grateful for that and we are both pleased with the result.

“Midnight”
24 x 18 inches
Acrylic on claybord

Prints of this image are available in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1732756934/midnight-garden-art-print-of-original?click_key=88a21fe8b96e6e20b8bd45200102a90f8b7ee42c%3A1732756934&click_sum=70cc18d9&ref=shop_home_active_1

Thanks, as always, for taking a look!

Well, I’ve been keeping busy. This is a new painting featuring the monster tomato plant I grew this past summer. Just as I was finishing this piece I was contacted by WMHT, our local PBS station. Would I be interested in being featured on their show about the arts? Yes, I would.

First, a little about the interview. The producer/director and the camera woman came to my home, turned my living room into a sort of studio where the interview was filmed. Then we went to my work area in the basement where I was filmed while I painted. This was the hard part. The camera was almost literally on my shoulder. Good thing I’ve learned how to tune the world out when I need to. It’s a short piece and if you’d like to take a look here’s the link:
https://fb.watch/aLMWetGbjF/

Picture it, a single tomato plant that all but took over the front yard. She could never have known how perfect the conditions were for that little seed but all the warm sun, the good Hudson Valley dirt, and the careful watering created a wonderful monster. Here she is, her cozy house and peony hedge behind her, picking another basket full of tomatoes. There is abundant life all around. Birds are bickering, a chipmunk helps herself, a skunk has wandered in. And that very fast dog, who just can’t seem to help herself, is getting mighty close to that squirrel.

”Tomato Garden”
18 x 24 inches
Acrylic on Clayboard

I’ve reopened my Etsy shop and you can find prints of this image here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1154168238/tomato-garden-art-print-of-original?click_key=72bba725ab2f741b717dc5019fcda0489281b3cb%3A1154168238&click_sum=25d605b5&ref=shop_home_active_1&sts=1

Thank you for reading along.
If you have any comments on the interview, or anything really, I’d love to hear them.