Cucumbers

A secret: whenever I finish a big painting, I’m always left in a sort of quiet panic. What do I paint next? Kind of like a little, fluttery bird, not knowing where to go, what to do. This morning I went out into my garden to pick whatever was available. For some reason, I’d planted far too many cucumber seeds. And now they’re going crazy, climbing all over the peppers and tomatoes. A cucumber jungle! I’ve been making cucumber salad (thin-sliced cukes, a pinch of sugar & salt and vinegar) and have been eating it 3X a day. I hated it as a kid. Thank goodness my tastes have changed. Still, they keep piling up. I set today’s harvest on a basket I’d bought years ago, down in the jungle near the Panama Canal. And then I knew: I need to paint a series of simple veggie pictures. I had a slew of 10×10″ gallery-wrapped canvases back in a storage room — perfect! And it’s a good project for too-hot (or rainy) days. Good-bye, little fluttery bird……