Authentic Texas Figs

  I like to draw from observation--real life, and I try to use photos, as tools, sparingly. Photography is an art form all it's own and I'm primarily a painter. By drawing what I actually see in front of me I learn more about how I see and how I interact with the object or scene. It becomes more personal and contemplative.
  This week I wanted to draw figs. They're in season, and in all the grocery stores now, but I wanted to learn how to draw some particularly good energy, Texas figs, so I asked my dear friend Rose, who has a small farm outside of Austin, to bring me some from her tree the next time she drove into town. She graciously obliged. She likes a good art project and she grows some delicious figs.
  They are a mildly ugly fruit on the outside, but on the inside, once cut open, they reveal a seductively shiny center (almost bawdy) which is flesh colored on the edge and is an increasingly rich burgundy color towards the center. And they're sweet to eat.
  I could take a quick photo with my phone, print it up and work from that image but it would teach me nothing about figs. And nothing about my relationship to these figs and how we both change during the experience.

Figs, pencil

I  set the figs on a dish which I then placed on some vibrant orange velvet which set off the chartreuse of the fig stems and the purples of their skins. The first drawing took maybe an hour and a half, in pencil, just trying to get a reliable likeness, but I am a sucker for color interaction so I knew this still life should become a painting.

Figs, watercolor

   Watercolor seemed the best choice because it's necessarily quick to finish, and oil, which is my more accustomed medium, would take so long that the figs would dry up or mold long before the painting would be complete. So watercolor was the choice. It took about 3 hours, and indeed, in that time the figs' burgundy red grew darker and the pretty fleshy beige color grew slightly translucent and grey. The resulting painting is not that great--I am still learning to control watercolor.  So, unsatisfied with the watercolor,  I know that my next step is an oil painting. But now that I have shared the better part of a day with these figs I feel like I can take the drawing, the watercolor, and my new intimate knowledge of these figs and use it all to create an oil painting which says something about how I see figs and avoid the use of a photograph which I find to be so dulling--and I can go ahead and eat the darned things already.

This is how we've been enjoying them lately:
  Macerate thin slices of red onion in balsamic vinegar and a pinch of good sea salt. Let sit several hours or overnight, no need to refrigerate. When you're ready to eat, slice 10-15 figs (5-6 if they're large) in half and set them on a bed of mixed salad greens, preferably a mixture of tender lettuce and bitter greens like arugula and radicchio. Spoon out the sliced, macerated onions onto the figs, add goat cheese crumblings or shavings of manchego cheese. Drizzle on a few spoonfuls of the balsamic vinegar liquid and a few drizzles of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste--lightly toasted pecans or walnuts are a nice addition. You will probably have leftover balsamic liquid: I have been adding more onion slices to the leftover liquid so that I can have the salad again tomorrow---with strawberries, pear or mango. It's a sweet and sour treat.

Fig, red onion and goat cheese salad