Tomatoes

My skills at growing vegetables seems to be rather less than growing catnip and yellow lantana. I bught a tomato plant in spring and another late in spring, but neither flourished.

The garden does what it wants though and a large robust plant has grown up beside the compost bin. I carefully bagged some of the flowers on this plant as tomatoes here tend to get insect eggs laid into them early which cause the tomatoes to rot just before you want to pick them. Later I discovered that this verdant getting-enormous plant has tiny tomatoes, the type that are not bitten by bugs, so I took off the bags. Now I am wondering how to encourage more fruit and less foliage.

Still life with tomatoes

Still life with tomatoes
60.5 x 80 cm (24" x 30")

There has been a large canvas sitting on my easel for a while, but I hadn't decided what to paint on it.  Then some tomatoes and onions painted themselves onto my Brian Wood jug picture (last post) and before I knew it they had spread onto my large canvas.

Once started I couldn't stop. I painted all weekend and now have a large still life with bottles and tomatoes. The jug planted itself in the picture too and needed three bottles to balance it.

Large painting dwarfs the small one

Addendum on 4 February:the painting is still morphing. It seemed too bland so I darkened the background and foreground.

Today's picture:

Tomatoes, jug and onions

The Brian Wood ceramic jug has been joined today by some tomatoes and onions. Now it looks a little less lonely.

Addendum (19:30) ...
a bottle wanted to join the group

Jug, tomatoes, onions and wine bottle