Gazpacho

Lindsey Gresham

I decided to paint a still life using the beautiful ingredients I had out to make Gazpacho, something I make all the time from the local produce sold at the weekly market in Loulé, Portugal, where I now live.
The blue and white plate is handmade from Porches Pottery, well known on the Algarve.
Most elements were painted from life but I changed the background wall and worktop from the glossy back granite of my kitchen to an imagined wall and wooden table top as the multiple reflections on the granite would have been too distracting and the wood suits the subject. I had the other piece of cucumber in the painting until a late stage but realised the composition would be better without it in so I scraped it out. Similarly I positioned the composition too high up on the canvas, so I added a thick lip or side to the imagined table which I actually really like. Sometimes poor planning and execution leads to happy endings!

See Lindsey Gresham’s Gallery