Halloween pumpkin #398

Daily painting #398. 6"x8" oil on primed canvas panel

Our typical South African variety of pumpkin is a hard blue white skinned pumpkin that takes enormous muscle power and a butchers knife to cut open. It certainly would be a hardy task to carve any fancy Halloween pumpkin heads from this variety. Suddenly as Halloween approaches the American orange pumpkin variety starts showing up in every store. Halloween is not celebrated in South Africa with as much gusto as America and for safety reasons there is not a chance that my children would wonder the streets at night trick or treating! So Halloween tends to be a good excuse to get together for a fun dress up party at someones house rather than the door to door trick or treating we are familiar with from the movies! I have been amazed at all the images of carved pumpkins circulating the net...there are some clever people out there! My sculpting skills leave much to be desired and I think I should stick to painting! The closest I came to carving any pumpkin was working up some muscle power cutting slices of this delicious pumpkin for supper....I roasted the giant slices (these pumpkins are big)  in some olive oil, herbs and a dash of chilli flakes....they were delicious!!!
I hope wherever you are that you had a happy Halloween or if you weren't celebrating that you had a happy Friday evening....I love the start of the weekend! I get to spend it with these special people photographed with me at the opening of my exhibition ....my awesome family!

Purchase paintings at Heidi Shedlock Fine Art
(The online store will be closed until the end of the Paintings in the post exhibition and will reopen after the 14th November)

I've got my eyes on you...#397

Daily painting #397 6"x8" oil on primed canvas panel

For those of you familiar with Paintings in the post, you will know that while I have such gratitude for the possibilities that internet communication provides, I also have a deep sense of respect and need for the tangible. Give me a book rather than my kindle any day and while I would not survive without email and internet, I have a passion for the good old snail mail communication. My love of receiving something tangible in the post is what sparked Paintings in the post! So I could not exhibit my little paintings without recognition for the documentation of my journey, that is the little bit of writing that accompanies each painting each day on the blog. Now you will also know that in starting this project I had a greater fear of sharing my words than my paintings, but I have learnt to shelve that fear and share regardless! My spelling and grammar at times would probably leave my old English teachers spinning but I share what I have to say anyway and the delete button is my best friend!! In a nut shell ....I am a painter...not a writer! But I have taken all the writing from the blog and created something tangible...a true record of my journey...and hopefully something that one day my family will keep as a record of me! A celebration of 365 days of painting and writing, in a book! It is on the exhibition but I can't wait to grab my reading glasses and revisit my days, jog my memory and reflect on my year of painting...

Purchase paintings at Heidi Shedlock Fine Art
(The Paintings in the post online store will be closed until the end of the exhibition. It will be reopened after the 14th November)