The Old Tea Tin, 9 inches by 12 inches, pastel on paper - click to see a larger image

Some of my favorite subjects to paint are the simple things a life is made of. These domestic themes  have been depicted through the ages because they are the things that are common among people, which makes them unifying.  

I found this bunch of onions at a local farm stand and they were too pretty to leave behind. Earlier this summer I painted leeks in a bucket, and I found the same challenges in both paintings, so many subtle variations in the whites that I found challenging to depict in a way that the viewer  (and camera!) can detect them, and so many reflected colors in the shadows.

As with most of my recent work, I used a combination of soft and hard pastels and pastel pencils and broke many of the tried and true rules of pastel. I prefer to think of them as guidelines because the most exciting breakthroughs  happen when you follow your own instinct.

This painting is available and you may send your inquiries to me either via my contact page  or by sending me an email at beth@bethlowell.com - I love to hear from my readers and am always grateful when you share my work.