Sketching Out Blog: Sketches of art, watercolor, photos, recipes, books, interviews, Jewish topics, and Highland Park, New Jersey

Excitement of a Purplish, Red, and Pink Radish

radish watercolor on white fence in front of garden structure
I was fiddling in my garden, and I saw the top of something purplish red. Behold! It was my first radish, in my new garden structure built by my friend Yosef Schmidt. I was so excited that I took a photo. It felt like the first “fruit” of my new garden: the other produce so far has been greens.

It turns out that there is a challenge called #studyfromlifechallenge on Instagram. You are supposed to paint from real life based on a weekly theme. So this week the theme was pink. When a painter looks at that radish, it is not just one shade of color. So I started my watercolor with opera pink. I later added some alizarin crimson and a tiny bit of cobalt blue.

Below is a photo of the garden structure when it was first built. It is 7 feet tall, and I commissioned Yosef to build it because the deer kept eating my plants. And we used to have a groundhog that lived on our garage that would eat all sorts of goodies in my garden. It has a door in the back, and a row for a human to walk into the structure and examine the three garden beds that are in a U shape.

So far, I have grown micro greens, french chervil, parsley, lettuce, and now radishes! Pea plants are growing, but no peas yet. Hopefully, basil, tomato, cucumber, and beans in the summer.
garden structure March 2022

Lorri M. says

I absolutely love this painting! The purple, reddish tones are beautiful, against the whiteness and greenness! The radish really stands out, very showy!
I want to create her into a pretty rose, to sit on top of some romaine lettuce! ๐Ÿ’œ

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Leora says

Radish roses sound like a lovely idea! Thank you for a new suggestion on how to use my home grown radishes. I enjoyed doing the painting. Each time a new item ripens in my garden I take out my watercolors and paint a version. So far I have done pea paintings, a radish painting, a cucumber, and I am working on a tomato one. Years ago I did one with nasturtium. I don't think I have done a basil one (yet).

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