Pumpkin Soup

Its coming up to pumpkin soup weather. Well, soon I hope as its still been quite warm and muggy the last couple of days. If you are going to buy a pumpkin to make soup why not use it for a painting first. This one is a Queensland Blue pumpkin and its my favourite type for soup. Funny thing is you do get to know the object of your painting so well that you feel rather remorseful when its time to cut it up :(. There is of course a story behind my painting. Many years ago Bob and I lived in the country. The locals put together a cookbook of their favourite recipes. The simple but extremely delicious pumpkin soup recipe in the top right hand corner of the painting is Barbara Pym's recipe and I think of her whenever I make it. She still cooked and baked amazing food on a wood burning stove even in the middle of summer, and took out a lot of prizes in the cooking section of the local show. Of course that's not the only pumpkin story I have. I remember endless drawings in art school with a pumpkin as a model. Tonal drawings, contour drawings, drawing on coloured paper adding the highlights rather than the shadows. Yeah well they do have interesting shapes don't they?

Pumpkin

mixed media on canvas

50.8x60.9cm (20"x24")