Spaces Between The Gaps

A hundred brushes & nothing to paint with

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:07:00 +0000

Time for a) new brushes, b) some serious brush rejuvenation & c) a cull.

Found Creatures In Paint

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:47:00 +0000

A gaggle of cheery critters to wish collectors happy birthday. A selection of the hand painted birthday cards that I send to my fans and supporters. For this year's theme I've been re-exploring my found creatures, but this time in paint instead of found objects. Perhaps they are more akin to imagination animals. Ooo the possibilities...

For you, as a newsletter subscriber. Just send me the day & month of your special day. To subscribe, yellow box top left!

Here's to imagination, optimism & seeing possibilities.

Exhibition open 24/7

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:40:00 +0000

'The Window' is a space reserved for artists local to the Art Gallery of Ballarat. As the name suggests, it is a window (actually two of them) at the front of the gallery, on the street. Anyone walking past can see the exhibitions for free 24/7. I have a selection of my paintings hung there now, until January 2.

Get thee along & have a peek.

A production line of painting panels

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:26:00 +0000

Creative Cauldron - Fred Williams

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:18:00 +0000

Iron Ore Hill Mount Turner

Hillside

There are some hills just outside Bacchus Marsh as I drive to Melbourne from Ballan that look like the quintessential Fred Williams landscape. High horizon, sparse squiggly-dot trees, textured, muted tones. I love driving past it. It's like seeing the essence of what he achieved in his painting reflected back on a grand scale in life. A giant living version of how he saw the views.

Iron Ore Landscape

Red Landscape

‘In Australia there is no focal point. Obviously it was too good a thing for me to pass up.’ Rather than adopting conventional perspective, space is flattened and tilted towards the viewer, implying the microcosm within the macrocosm and an aerial viewpoint. From his retrospective at the NGA.

Upwey Landscape

Burning Tree Stump

Wikipedia:

His interest in finding an aesthetic 'language' with which to express the very un-European Australian landscape. This was grounded in establishing a pictorial equivalent to the overwhelmingly vast, primarily flat landscape, in which the traditional European relationship of foreground to background breaks down, necessitating a complete re-imagining of compositional space. In this, Williams looked to the approach taken by Australian Aboriginal artists.

You Yangs Landscape

Dry Creek Bed Werribee Gorge I

He managed to achieve the completely new way of representing the landscape (no small accomplishment) that he aimed for and his paintings are instantly recognisable from across a room because of it.

Circle Landscape Upwey

Claypans

The influence of Aboriginal art is always apparent in the dots and pattern, the earthy muted tones, the aerial like view.

Silver And Grey

Yellow Landscape

His artwork has a texture and life that is breathtaking in real life. These small reproductions do his paintings no justice whatsoever. Even his abstracted versions of landscapes capture a distinct feeling of what it's like to stand in a vast Australian landscape and feel the spaciousness.

Hardy River Mount Turner Syncline

Upwey Landscape II

Fred Williams official website: http://www.fredwilliams.me.com.au/index.html

Recovery week

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:28:00 +0000

Still on go-slow and recovery after the intensity of the art fair of last weekend. The veggie patch is looking mighty fine with the extra tinkering and pottering it's been receiving in my extra downtime. Loads of rain and sunshine has helped everything grow.

At least we are getting more than just grass.

Ballarat Artisan Fair 2011

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:48:00 +0000

It was an exhausting and successful weekend of art fair goodness, from which it has taken me three full days to recover. Bugger being an introvert - I can meet and greet and chat all day with people as well as anyone else, but when it's all over a recharge is not enough - I need a brand new battery!

Despite the tiringness, it was wonderful to meet so many people, to see people's reactions to the artwork and the cookbook concept (overwhelmingly postive) and to meet a bunch of likeminded local creatives.

Below are my photos from the event, previously published on FB.

Another roundup, including loads more photos of the event (and not written by me!) over at the Ballarat Independent: http://theballaratindependent.com.au/news/article/nanna-technology-and-artisan-craft-a-fine-mix

"Ballarat's talented artists and artisans were once again a feature over the weekend at the second Ballarat Artisan Festival. A wonderfully diverse array of work was on show with contemporary and traditional artworks, shoemaking, glass works, sculpture, cartooning, textiles and several other crafts... "

All set up and in the swing of the fair.

A little bit of live painting is more interesting for everyone.

Early in the setup before the framed paintings started walking off the walls.

The crafty goodness of Grace By the Lake.

Jenny and Caron, of Grace By the Lake - very friendly faces.

Linda of South Street Art Studio with her meditation inspired works.

Linda runs both art and meditation classes at South Street Art Studio. She's a very supportive personality.

Christine Hickson, whom I was introduced to by several sets of people. Obviously we were meant to meet!

The exquisite watercolours of Christine Hickson. She needs an Etsy store as her work is gorgeous & people were loving it.

Pauline O'Shannessy-dowling with her intricate and wonderful works.

One of these large intruiging abstractish pieces is a prizewinner.

Setting Up an Art Fair or Market Stall

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 06:37:00 +0000

Set up of my stall in progress for the Ballarat Artisan Fair

Ballarat Artisan Fair. This Friday, Saturday and Sunday 4th, 5th & 6th November 2011. The Mining Exchange, 8 Lydiard St, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (just a few doors down from the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery). 10am - 4pm each day. Some forty or so regional artists will be displaying and selling their creations, along with music, coffee, nibbles, artists talks and demonstrations. Come along if you can.

Today has been consumed with the set up of my stall at the Ballarat Artisan Fair. This is the first time I've prepared for an art fair. It's taken several weeks to get everything together, from varnishing all the (70+) paintings, to sourcing gift bags (that never arrived!) to printing promotional material. Below is a list of everything I've been able to think of to take along or have prepared. I'll append it afterwards as there are bound to be new insights gained from participating in the event.

Table

Trestle table or two
Many markets require a white table cover, so get a white sheet or two, or something nicer such as velvet (not velveteen as it looks cheap) or satin or canvas
Large butterfly clips for clipping tablecloth to table, and gaffa tape the same colour as the table cover for hiding the clips
Clamps for backup clipping tablecloth to table
A bucket or box as a bin for under your table is rather handy

Promotional material

Business name banner with rope and gaffa tape for hanging options
Business cards
Email list signup sheet on clipboard
Pens for signup sheet, attached by string
Postcards of artwork
Photo books of artwork - show off more than you can bring on the day as interested people may ask for a commission based on what they see you are capable of
Photo board of artwork - lots of artwork to choose from on the day but too many paintings to display at once? Show photo samples of your full range. Individual artworks can be shown on request.
Artist statement for display, possibly laminated
Price tags, ready and blank (who knows what will happen on the day and how many you will need)
Nice paper to print out price tags and artist statement and any other small signage

Displaying artwork

Figure out the stall design and layout first
Builders level for getting frames hung straight (so good)
Wire/hooks/picture hooks
Framing wire (make sure it's rated to cope with more than double the weight your work weighs)
Fishing wire to make a washing line artwork display
Sinkers to weight down display wire to make it stay taught
Small bulldog clips x 24 for hanging unframed artwork washing line style (these are super handy)
Cotton gloves for handling artwork
Frames, ready to hang
Pliers - fat and thin
Hammer
Wirecutters
Screwdrivers - an assortment
Masking tape
Scissors
Gaffa tape / cloth tape in colours to match your display elements
Blu-tack
Double sided tape
Backboard/screen on which to hang artwork
Window cleaner and paper towels for cleaning the glass & frames - essential

Storing artwork

Portable box storage system
Glassine paper for unframed artwork

Looking after me

Portable music
Lunch - no heating required, not messy
Snacks - nuts, fruit, quick, not messy
Water - have two litres
Coffee, tea, hot drink in thermos or hot water plus bags/containers, milk
Camping chair or something to sit on, plus a cover to make this presentable

Selling artwork

Change from bank for cash sales
Cash storage - bumbag or tin or wallet
Credit card payment facilities - if not provided, take a laptop with easy access to the Paypal site, laptop power supply, powerboard and extension cord
Certificates of authenticity - ready to print (take printer, extension cord and spare ink) or already printed out in doubles and take carbon paper
Clip board with attached pen for filling out the COA's - very handy
Packaging for sold artwork - precut cardboard sleeves / boxes or gift bags and bubble wrap
Phone, charged up
Red dot stickers
Paintings, varnished and framed
Pencils
Pens
Notepads
Packing tape
Regular stickytape / sellotape

If you're an artist and have useful notes to add from your experiences of art fairs, please enlighten the rest of us in the comments.

Corn Patties or Fritters

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:24:00 +0000

Chunky. Versatile. Homely. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

is 30 x 30cm acrylic with oil transfer drawing on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton archival paper. Exploring the decorative, flourish filled style of Alfonse Mucha, the much loved and celebrated artist of the Art Nouveau era. Many of his pictures make a show of long swirling hair, and repeated circular patterns. I could 'see' that the wispy tendrils of the sweetcorn husk and the circular corn kernals would fit right in to a wistful Mucha-like design.

Did you know you can download images of the paintings for your own personal (not commercial) use? Computer wallpaper, Facebook profile picture, yes you can. Find your favourite painting on Flickr, go to actions, view all sizes, download the size you want to your device, set it as your wallpaper or profile. And tell your friends where it came from :)

Original artwork can be purchased in the Official Art Store. This particular piece is currently drying and will be available shortly. To find out exactly when that is, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

I have a bit more than tinkered with the family recipe I had for corn patties. Now there is much more corn flavour and the tinge of glue has been banished. These are light and fluffy and simple to make. I find they are awesome as a satisfying and light summer meal with roast tomatoes, lettuce and onion jam (recipe coming soon) or salsa (recipe coming soon), or as part of a veggie breakfast fryup. They can be used as a vege burger too. Yes, they are versatile.

1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda (this makes the patties rise. Leave it out if you want corn doorstops. Add extra in if you like the taste of bleurgh.)
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups corn kernals (about 3 large cobs of corn)
2 spring onions, chopped
optional 1/2 medium red capsicum diced into pieces 1cm or smaller so they cook through
butter for frying

Mix flour, salt and bicarb.
Add the eggs and mix until smooth.
Add the corn, spring onion (and capsicum).
Mix thoroughly. It will be quite thick and there will seem to be very little to hold it all together. That's ok.
Fry in butter like pancakes on a medium to high heat. I find 2 dessertspoons makes a good sized pattie. This amount of mix makes 8-10 patties of this size. Try to only turn these once. Like pancakes, watch for the bubbles appearing on the surface before attempting to flip them as this turn can be a bit delicate. Be patient.

Gobble down on 8-10 patties. I find 2 or 3 patties per person (depending on their starvation level) works well when served with salad and condiments as suggested above. So that means this serves 3-4 people.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Gingerbread

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:06:00 +0000

Fun. Spiced. Homely. Robust.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Ready to have some fun? Relive some happy childhood memories? Dump your diary in the bin, clear the kitchen table, sit down with a bunch of friends and have an innocent child-at-heart partytime.

Remember - play with your food!

Original artwork can be purchased in the Official Art Store. To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This quote from a recipe tester says it all, "makes commercial gingerbread look like sweet sludge".

This gingerbread has a real and robust flavour that you can actually taste. It's just as easy to make as any other gingerbread. The secret ingredient is glace ginger.

1/2 cup golden syrup or similar
1/4 cup raw sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped glace ginger (the secret ingredient)
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
pinch ofsalt
2 cups plain flour
several tablespoons water as needed

Heat the golden syrup almost to the boil, then add sugar, butter and milk. Mix well until sugar is dissolved and butter melted then remove from the heat source.
Mix the dry ingredients together, including the glace ginger.
Slowly add dry to wet ingredients, mixing carefully to avoid lumps. A few tablespoons of water may be needed to make a dough that will hold together and can be handled easily.
Roll out to 3/4 cm thick. Cut out fun shapes. Decorate with currants, sultanas and candied citrus peel if you want.
Bake for 5-7 mins in 180C/350F oven.
Eat straight away or cool on a wire rack if you can resist.

Makes about a dozen 10cm tall gingerbread people.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Creative Cauldron - Wassily Kandinsky

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:30:00 +0000

Gravitation 1935

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter who is generally credited with creating the first purely abstract art (in Western art) in 1910.

Succession 1935

His geometric abstractions were inspired by music, colour symbolism and psychology, and a deep need to express his inner emotional/spiritual world (nowdays known as abstract expressionism).

Composition VIII 1923

From Artchive, "His "inner necessity" to express his emotional perceptions led to the development of an abstract style of painting that was based on the non-representational properties of color and form. Kandinsky's compositions were the culmination of his efforts to create a "pure painting" that would provide the same emotional power as a musical composition."

Compostion VII 1913

I have no interest in Kandinsky's work before he moved to abstracts. And there are some varieties of his abstracts that I really don't like, as in this Composition VII shown above, even though it is considered to be one of his masterpieces. So, so hideously busy, ugh. It still has his trademark visual balance though.

Gentle Ascent 1934

The works I prefer explore carefully balanced lines and shapes and colour, with plenty of space to breathe around them, a plain or sparse background.

Blau 1922

They are busy but uncluttered. They look both simple and complex. There are many small marks within big spaces.

Tempered Elan 1944

There is a flow of line and colour.

Several Circles 1926

There is a sense of innocence or childlikeness. A feeling of musicality. A playfullness. I think this quality is important to me. It's also what I enjoy in the work of cartoonists.

Upward 1929

They are precise, yet flow and balance, just so. He seems to have quite a command over his lines. They walk the tightrope of precision and freedom.

I remember seeing his work when I was in primary school. It had a huge impact on me. You could say it spoke to me. In adult language, it was the compositional balance that really hit me. I am still enthralled by his ability in this area. His art is just shapes and marks in colour and they are always so lopsided, quirky and visually perfectly balanced.

Bright Picture 1913

Pea and Mint Soup with Zip

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:30:00 +0000

Chunky. Thrifty. Homely. Filling.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on board. England is known for it's dreary grey days. The greyest and foggiest of these days are called pea soupers, when the fog is so settled and thick that you can barely see a few feet in front of you. This painting is an interpretation of a 'pea souper', with a nod to the lovely misty and ethereal tree paintings of Melbourne's Kathryn Ryan.

Original artwork for Autumn and Winter paintings can be purchased in the Official Art Store. To be kept updated on the availablity of Spring and Summer paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This recipe is an inspired conglomeration of several pea soups I have known and enjoyed. The first was a family recipe for your bog standard Pea and Ham soup. Very flavouful, somewhat missed once I stopped eating meat. The second was another family recipe for a Pea and Mint soup which was interesting for it's enormous use of mint, but not outstanding in itself. And finally there was the Ainsley Harriet cup-o-soup version of Shropshire Minted Pea Soup from when I was working in London. Drinkable in a cup-o-soup kind of a way, it caught my attention with it's unusual spice and tang. Unfortunately this was due to the inclusion of the world famous Worstershire Sauce which contains anchovies and I stopped drinking this once I realised. But then it was game on to create my own Pea soup which was flavourful like the Pea and Ham, super minty like the Pea and Mint, and tangy and spicy minus the anchovies like the Shropshire soup. Success below!

1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
a few cracks of pepper and salt
500g dried green split peas
7 cups weak stock
2-3 small bay leaves
up to 1 teaspoon hot paprika
1/4 - 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups roughly chopped fresh mint (this is about 36g of leaves or 4 cups unchopped) - err on the generous side

Saute the onion in butter until soft with a little pepper and salt.
Add stock, split peas, bay leaves, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, and two big pinches of hot paprika.
Simmer gently with the lid on until the peas are completely broken down. This means at least for one hour, and preferably, for two hours.
Taste test. Check for heat/spiciness and cautiously add more hot paprika to suit. It's heat will vary depending on it's age (less heat with age). Also check for tartness/tang. Depending on the balsamic vinegar and your tastes, you may want to add more to suit.
Finally, stir in all the roughly chopped mint.

Makes 4 rather hearty bowls.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Velvety Cucumber Soup

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 23:28:00 +0000

Delicate. Easy. Quick. Creamy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil and graphite on linen. I have a soft spot for Victorian era or olde worlde looking botannical illustrations. Now this painting is not strictly in that vintage style as I've aimed to loosen it up a bit with watercolour inspired brushwork. The result is rightly a bit more modern, while harking back to an older era where cucumbers were routinely eaten as a sole sandwich filling, and held in much higher regard than they seem to be today.

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store? If you want to get your mitts on the original, it is drying and awaiting it's professional photoshoot before being allowed in the shop.

To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

It can be somewhat odd making soups in high summer, but sometimes that's exactly what you want to eat. Some people enjoy cold soups at this time of year. I don't enjoy cold soup at any time of year. I did, however, try this soup both cold and warm and I can say that it works either way. So if chilled soup is your thing then you can make this and put it in the fridge. If warm (not hot) soup is your preference, this is delightful. It also uses a good quantity of cucumber which I have discovered grows as prolifically as zucchini. Just so you know, not deseeding or peeling the cucumbers turns this into an entirely different and rather ordinary dish. I am generally not in favour of peeling and deseeding vegetables or of creating extra work in the kitchen. In this recipe it is essential. Peel, deseed then weigh your cucumber. It is absolutely worth it.

1 Tbl olive oil

700g cucumber that has already been peeled and deseeded (about 1.4kg whole cucumber), sliced or grated

4 spring onions, chopped

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups stock

2 teaspoons fresh chopped dill

2 avocados

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

black pepper to taste

Soften the spring onion in oil.
Add grated/sliced cucumber, lemon juice, stock and dill.
Heat until the cucumber is warmed through and softened. It doesn't need to be 'cooked'.
Add avocado and white wine vinegar and puree until velvety smooth.
Serve and garnish with more dill.
Add salt and pepper to taste. A generous amount of pepper works well.

Serves 4.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Haloumi Summer Crown

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:08:00 +0000

Easy. Fresh. Satisfying. Chunky.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Making use of the square brush technique I talked about in my previous post, a summery rendition of this jewel studded dish all plated up and ready to gormandise. The real meal is pretty much as colourful as the painting is.

***

The meatless meals recipe

I enjoy the freshness of salads but often find them not filling enough. And so I have a tendency to tinker with them until they become full main meals. This is one of those tinkerings. One hot London evening (an oxymoron most of the time), I felt inspired to feast on the well known Italian tricolore or caprese salad of fresh tomato slices, fresh basil leaves and fresh mozzarella slices. Lacking those ingredients, and being hungry enough for a full meal, this is basically what I came up with. It's been refined over the years into a jewel studded crown of a summer meal.

Big thanks to Mari and Catriona in helping me give this recipe an appropriate name!

200-250g haloumi or paneer cheese, in slices about 1/2cm thick (both of these cheeses can be fried without melting out of shape)
around 310g zucchini, in slices about 1/2cm thick (using a long diagonal works well)
around 240g eggplant, in slices about 1/2cm thick
1 clove garlic
around 260g fresh tomato in slices about 1/2cm thick (about 3 medium tomatoes)
plenty of butter for frying

125g / 3/4 cup couscous
zest of 1/2 lemon
chopped parsley, about 25g
1 cup / 250ml boiling water
slosh of olive oil
optional 'clean out the fridge' veg, diced really fine - 1/2 cup

juice of 1/2 lemon

If you are using haloumi for this dish do not salt anything as it is frying. I repeat -DO NOT ADD SALT- Haloumi is very salty itself and any extra salt will make your tongue weep. Paneer, on the other hand, is usually not salty at all, so taste it first and go for your life.

Fry the zucchini slices in butter.
Fry the eggplant slices in butter. Mince the garlic and add to the frying eggplant. Once you have a bit of browning on the eggplant add some water to the pan. This speeds up the cooking time significantly and ensures the cooked eggplant is lovely and soft.
Fry the haloumi slices. It doesn't need much, just enough to be golden brown on the outside and heated through.
Meanwhile, put the couscous, lemon zest, parsley, olive oil, optional minced veg and boiling water in a container with a lid, cover and leave for 10 minutes. Your couscous is now cooked!
To serve, I like to make a ring (the crown!) around the outside of the plate with the zucchini, eggplant, haloumi and fresh tomato slices all alternating. Then I fill the middle with the couscous mix.
A squeeze of lemon juice all over finishes this off.

This makes a meal for two. Unless you are using a BBQ to fry the ingredients it's not really practical from a cooking space point of view to make this for more than two people.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Square Brush / Square Touch Brushwork Technique

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:03:00 +0000

Pickled Eggplant - Fiona Morgan. An example of square brush in my work.

There was once only one way for a painting to be. The surface had to be smooth, the brushstrokes invisible. Anything less was considered scandalously unfinished. This is talking about the history of European painting of course. Over time, this idea has loosened. Broad brushstrokes, suggestions of detail, obvious brushmarks are now obliviously normal.

Detail of Bastien Lepage's Sarah Bernhardt showing the loose brushwork that has influenced so many modern painters today.

The impressionists really smashed the idea of hiding every brushstroke, but the idea had been gaining ground for quite some time. The artists Velaquez, Bastien Lepage and even as far back as Rembrandt had been toying with letting the painterlyness of paint do the talking.

Angela Morgan (no, not a relative!) makes a real feature of square brush technique in her work.

Square brush or square touch technique is a version of the broken brushstroke technique the Impressionists were famous for, and it is common today.

Detail of a Joe Sorren painting showing off the square brush backgrounds I love in his work.

Usually using brights, flats or filberts, the flat of the paintbrush is used to lay down squarish strokes of paint directly, unblended, in a jigsaw pattern.

Aldro T Hibbard, and many of the Rockport school of painting are characterised by a square brush technique.

It gives a chunky feeling which is great for modelling structure. Different planes of an object can be deliniated easily with different temperature strokes and different values.

Arthur Streeton showcasing the atmospheric quality of square brush.

It easily gives soft edges useful for atmosphere and light.

Daily painter Layne Cook with a dramatic square touch example showing the removal of detail.

The size of the squares eliminates distracting detail and therefore has a unifying effect on the painting as a whole. Anything smaller than one square stroke has to be really important to be included. This eliminates visual clutter, focussing the viewer on the most important aspects of the painting.

Dean Cornwell with an excellent example of fooling the eye into seeing more detail than is actually there. Look at the greys - the timbers and the ground.

It gives a pixellating vibrancy to the surface of the painting. Each stroke can be a slightly different colour and angle which makes the painting appear to sing with more colour and detail than is actually there. The eye detects colour changes and hints of detail. Square touch is a way of fooling the brain into adding what it thinks should be there. Thank you impressionistic heritage.

Sir Henry Raeburn, Scottish portrait painter, managed to subtley use square touch throughout his career of figurative painting, despite being ahead of his time and the difficulty of this technique in portraiture. It's much more suited to still life and landscape.

A most excellent wrap up of square brush technique is over on Stapletearn Kearn's blog. Muchly recommended.

http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-on-brushstroke.html

There are loads of artists who make great use of this painterly technique. Know of an artist whose work is loaded with square brush? Tell us! Leave a comment.

How to Make Your Meat Based Meals Vegetarian

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 01:05:00 +0000

Sometimes you want to create a vegetarian version of a familiar

meat based meal. And non-vegetarians who have to cook a meatless or vegetarian meal are often stumped about how to get past the mentality of ‘meat and three veg minus the meat’.

The bad news is that sometimes it’s just not possible. Trying to make a vegetarian version of a baked fish, for example, is just setting yourself up for failure.

However, there are many meat based meals that can be successfully adapted for vegetarians so that everyone at the table can eat the same familiar thing.

I have veg versions of spaghetti bolognese, carbonara, stroganoff, lasagna, ramen, chilli con carne, burgers, and chowder (coming soon) that are all usually meat dependent meals, and that my non-veg friends are more than happy to chow down on.

Let Me Make Some Suggestions:.....

Want to keep reading? This article is a guest post I wrote for the wonderful vegetarian resource, Savvy Vegetarian. The rest of the useful info on vegetarianising meat based meals is there. Head on over, it's only a click...

http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/blog/vegetarian-news/make-meat-based-meals-vegetarian

Creative Cauldron - Michael Leunig

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:53:00 +0000

In the same way as it is normal here in Australia (or at least in Melbourne) to have a tin of beetroot in vinegar and a jar of vegemite in the back of your cupboard (guilty as charged), it is also standard issue to have a Leunig cartoon stuck to the fridge.

There's good reason for this.

Most cartooning is observation of the world packaged into a humourous form. Some cartoonists observe the amusing habits of pets and their owners. Some take the piss out of our politicians and despin their carefully woven tales for us.

Every now and then there is a cartoonist who holds the mirror up to our collective internal lives, look into our souls and tell us what we are really doing and feeling. Part shaman, part comedian, part artist.

In the same way that I admire Tom Roberts for his ability to tap into the collective unconscious and then distill this into pictures that become part of our national identity, I admire Leunig's similar ability in cartoon form to really clearly see, capture and show us ourselves.


Mr Curly sees 'The Great Impressionists' at the National Gallery in Canberra

All with a good dash of the famed Aussie irreverence....From the NGV website, "One of the most irreverent and clever reinterpretations of Shearing the rams is Ramming the shears, 1984 by Michael Leunig. Leunig is an astute observer of Australian society. His witty reinterpretation of Roberts’s paintings is both humourous and thought provoking in the questions it raises about Australian national identity. Ramming the shears first appeared in Leunig’s regular spot in ‘The Age’, but it gained wider circulation in 1985 when it was used on the cover of a book of Leunig’s cartoons."

Ramming the Shears

For me, it's all about the ideas. Soulful, gentle, enlightening, frighteningly accurate.

Filled with truths to contemplate,

and reflections on how to live, not just exist.

Leunig has numerous books published of collected cartoons, as well as paintings, etchings, prints and interviews. Everything is accessible from his website:

http://www.leunig.com.au/

Elderflower Cordial

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:41:00 +0000

Refreshing. Zesty. Delicate. Versatile.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Elderflower cordial is the essence of summer sunshine, bottled. Can you feel the glimmers of elderflower sundrops cascading down?

***

The meatless meals recipe

Elderflower cordial is made from the flowers of the elder tree (sambucus nigra) in summer. Elderberry wine is made from the berries that grow from the flowers in autumn. This cordial / syrup / squash is wonderful as a mixer in simple cold summer drinks. It's simple to make and far far cheaper than buying a commercial version, if one is even available where you live. I struggle to find it in shops where I am, yet can think of at least three abundant elder trees within two minutes walk. So I make it myself. I first discovered this drink while living in Edinburgh. Just like summer there, the elderflowers don't stay around long enough.

Photo by scott.zona

30 heads of elderflowers - the elder tree flowers at the beginning of summer for only a few weeks. That's early December in the southern hemisphere, and early June in the northern. The best time to pick the flowers is on a warm sunny day when the flowers are fully open and when the pollen is at it's height. I've also read that mornings are a better time for picking as by evening the flowers can smell like cat pee, but I haven't personally found this to be the case. It may depend on individual elder trees. At any rate, the flowers should smell heavenly when you pick them. If not, try a different time or different tree.

1kg sugar- yes this seems like a lot but I have tested using less and this amount was the clear flavour winner. Also sugar acts as a preservative, so a large amount means this should keep on the shelf.

1L water

2 lemons

2 oranges (I've read that limes can be used instead, but I haven't tested this.)

55g citric acid - here in Australia this is available in supermarkets in the baking section. I'm told in the UK it is available in chemists. If you get a strange look while purchasing it's because heroin users make use of citric acid, for exactly what I'm not sure. Rest assured that citric acid is a very normal ingredient in cordial making! I've read that tartaric acid can be used instead, according to personal preference, but I am yet to test this.

First clean and sterilize all the cooking implements. It's easy, all you need to do is give them a normal wash, then a quick wash in diluted bleach and finally a rinse under very hot or boiling water. This may be overkill for cordial, but as with all preserves, it's heartbreaking to go to the effort of cooking and bottling only to find three weeks later that everything is growing mould because you couldn't be bothered sterilizing an item. I needed to use a chopping knife, chopping board, grater / zester, giant pot and lid, stirring spoon, 1L bottle, funnel, sieve and fine mesh muslin.

To make the cordial, put the water and sugar in the pot and heat while stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Put the lid on the pan and leave it to cool to at least luke warm or cooler.

Stir in the citric acid.

Zest all the lemons and oranges and add the zest to the pot.

Then slice the lemons and oranges, discard the ends and add the whole slices to the pot.

Gently shake the elderflowers clean of debris and insects over a sink or bowl or bin and add the entire flower heads minus any leaves to the pot. Do not wash the flowers as you will lose all the lovely scented pollen.

Give the pot a good stir, cover with the lid and leave for 24 hours.

Next day, after giving your hands a thorough wash, firmly squeeze all the liquid from the elderflowers and then discard the flowers.

Gently squeeze about half the liquid from the fruits and then discard the fruits.

Decant your cordial into a sterilized bottle using fine muslin to catch any floaties. A funnel and sieve are very useful here.

This recipe makes one litre of cordial.

Enjoy immediately! Goes well with sparkling mineral water, or gin, as well as with plain water, of course. A refreshing and sophisticated taste, perfect for warm lazy days.

+++

More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Celery Soup

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:36:00 +0000

Thrifty. Delicate. Homely. Quick.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Did you know that the celery heart makes a great floral style stamp? Neither did I until mooching around for ideas for this painting. I was looking for inspiration for strong and simple - as this soup manages to be easy, delicate, robust and thrifty all at once, and wanting to tie celery into this somehow. And so I landed on a simple, homely, retro looking design that harks back to slower times, is a little bit rustic, and is based around the heart of the celery.

Like the painting? There's more in the Official Art Store? To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This soup manages to be both delicate and robust in flavour. Made up on the spot by my husband while we were away on holiday one summer and short on ingredients. It rocked and as usual we then had to reverse engineer and test test test how it was done. This is a lightweight soup for warm weather that won't leave you hot and bothered from slaving over the stove, or indegestibly full.

500g celery, about half a bunch, cleaned, chopped, no leaves

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 medium potato about 150g, roughly chopped small

4 cups / 1L stock

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon butter

salt to taste

Saute the onion in butter until lightly golden.

Add celery and sweat (lid on folks!) until the celery is softened.

Add the stock and potato and simmer, lid off, for about 20 minutes or until all the ingredients are very soft.

Puree / blend.

Add milk and gently reheat.

Salt to taste.

Serves 4.

+++

More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Chinese No-Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Light. Satisfying. Easy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton archival paper.

Another abstract exploration, this time it's my more usual fascination with combining colour, texture and pattern. This painting explores some of the transparent techniques of watercolour and is ruled by the essential corn kernals, the colours of the actual soup and the tendrilly patterns of the egg in the broth.

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store? If you want to get your mitts on the original, mailing list subscribers get first dibs on new artwork. Yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

A lifetime ago when I still ate meat, my super-favourite-must-have in every visit to a Chinese restaurant was Chinese Chicken and Sweetcorn soup (when I eventually discovered Hot and Sour soup there was decision chaos but that's another story). Some dishes just hit the spot every time. Obviously in this lifetime that dish has been off my menu. I finally got around to figuring out how to make a vegetarian version that is the equal in tastebud satisfaction, no fowl tactics required. This is it.

At least 20g dried shiitake mushroom (don't trust what the weight on the packet says, measure it yourself. I've been caught out, and not quite enough of this ingredient makes for a washed out soup)

1.8L water

2 teaspoons salt

2 cups corn kernals (2-3 cobs of corn), either whole (good) or partly crushed/blended (great)

2 large pinches ground white pepper
4 tablespoons dry or medium dry sherry
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 beaten eggs
2 spring onions, chopped fine
up to 1 tablespoon sugar to taste, depending on the sweetness of the corn

Gently simmer together the water, dried shiitake mushroom, corn kernals and salt for at least 30 minutes. Be careful, if this is boiling it tends to boil over. Simmer gently.
Add pepper, sherry and sesame oil. Bring back to a simmer.
Mix the cornflour with just enough cold water to form a paste. Add this in a thin stream to the soup, stirring constantly. This will thicken the soup. If the cornflour is added slowly enough and the stirring is constant enough, lumps will be avoided.
When the soup has thickened, remove from the heat.
Stir in the beaten egg in a thin stream. It will cook instantly.
Sprinkle with spring onion.
Taste for sweetness. Sometimes the corn lacks sweetness if it is not at the height of it's season. If a pinch of sugar added to the pot improves/intensifies the taste, then cautiously add sugar until you are satisfied with the balance of flavour.

This makes enough soup for 4.

+++

More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Ministroni Soup

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 03:05:00 +0000

Chunky. Satisfying. Homely. Thrifty.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on Crescent Museum RagMat board. This is museum quality board, 100% cotton, made to withstand time.

Abstract Expressionism. A very sixties style of painting. The typical working method is to stand before the canvas and start and let the ideas bubble up from the subconscious while painting to make themselves known. It's not unusual for the artist to only figure out what they painted well after the piece is finished. This method has had a huge impact on many current artists. The paintings tend to be very abstract and are meant to invoke emotion in the viewer. That's my understanding anyway.

I went about trying abstract expressionism, holding the idea of ministrone soup in my mind while aiming for the particular style of layered large shapes. I was particularly taken by this image by Pamela Scott, available here. It was exactly what I wanted to achieve - a balance of large abstract colour shapes with a retro sensibility.

I have to admit that it was a hundred times harder than it looked. If you like the ministrone soup painting, snap it up, it's a true one off. I won't be working in this style again in a hurry.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This ministrone is the genuine article. Though I'm sure there are as many variations on ministrone as there are Italian cooks. This version was originally from the Italian mother of a friend from the distant past. I'm sure I've put my own twist on it in the intervening years, but I honestly don't remember what was original and what adjustments I may have made. I've cooked this so many times over the years so it's sure to have evolved. My suspicion is that the lambrusca instead of any red wine is my personal twist.

1 cup cooked or 1/3 cup dried cannellini beans
1 cup fresh or 1/3 cup dried whole green peas
7 cups stock
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 stick celery, sliced
1 largish onion, chopped
8 tomatoes rough chopped or around 600g tomatoe puree
optional 1/2 cup of any leafy green roughly chopped
optional 1/2 chilli, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup uncooked macaroni
optional and highly recommended 1 cup sweetish red wine (something like lambrusca is fabulous)

Warning. You will need a big pot.
For dried beans and peas, soak them overnight in the stock and then simmer for 1-2 hours with the celery, carrot and onion until the beans and peas are soft.
For cooked beans and fresh peas, just simmer these together with the stock, celery, carrot and onion for 40 minutes.
Then add the tomato, leafy greens, basil, oregano and chilli. Cook for 10 minutes.
Add the macaroni (and frozen peas here if you are cheating) and cook until the pasta is tender.
Add the red wine and heat through.

Serve with big chunks of crusty bread.
Feeds at least 6.

+++

More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Buddah's Delight

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:39:00 +0000

Leisurely. Versatile. Unusual. Hearty.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin. A high quality paper, made to last for generations.

The symbol in this artwork is based on an ancient Chinese lotus charm. The buddah and the lotus are closely connected and I like that the hidden meaning of the charm, continuous harmony, is a suitable sentiment for the celebration of the end of winter and the beginning of a new year that this dish is traditionally served at.

From the charm website, "In Buddhism, the lotus represents purity and detachment from worldly cares because of the dignified manner in which it emerges from the muck of a pond.

Because the Buddha is often depicted as seated on a lotus, the lotus is considered a sacred Buddhist symbol (one of Eight Auspicious Symbols) representing purity and detachment from worldly cares.

The Chinese word for lotus is lianhua or hehua. Lian is also the pronunciation of the word for continuous and he is also the pronunciation for the word harmony so the lotus has the hidden meaning of "continuous harmony"."

***

The meatless meals recipe

On the first day of Chinese New Year (a variable date in January or Febuary) it is traditional to cook this vegetarian dish. Chinese New Year is meant to mark the end of winter, so as it's officially the first day of spring here in southern hemisphere Australia, this recipe is quite appropriate.

Buddah's Delight goes by quite a few names and a vast array of ingredients. I'll get to that bit. You may have heard of it as Monks Vegetables. Or maybe as Lo Han Zai or Zai Choi.

As I mentioned, the ingredients are widely varied. I find this dish is as much about sampling different textures together as it is about taste. All the textures are bound together by the flavoured sauce. The sauce varies a lot too. Many recipes use a fermented tofu product as the base of the sauce which some people find nauseating, myself included. It's also a bit tricky to find. Many recipes use a heavily soy sauce based sauce, which I found to be just plain salty and one dimensional. This version uses a modified soy sauce base with heaps more flavour added in and easy on the salt. You should be able to get all the ingredients at your supermarket too.

And the last note is that this dish tastes best if at least half of the ingredients are fresh. In other words, minimise the tofu, starch, lotus, noodles, lilybuds and waterchestnut and maximise the vegetables.

Sauce base:

4 cloves garlic, sliced

sesame oil

2 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 cup dry or medium dry sherry

1 1/2 - 2 cups stock (water from rehydrating the shitake mushrooms is good here)

Recommended ingredients:

bamboo shoots

shitake mushroom (fresh or rehydrated)

1 carrot, sliced

lotus root slices

chinese cabbage, shredded fine (2 handfuls or more)

snowpeas, whole

water chestnut

wood ear / black fungus mushroom (fresh or rehydrated, remove the hard bits, half a handful is enough, this expands a lot)

Additional ingredients:

bean sprouts

dried sticks of bean curd

glass noodles (half a handful is enough)

dried lilybuds

gingko nuts or peanuts or cashews

small cubes of fried tofu puffs

other mushroom

Get a big pot out for this. No, bigger.

Make the sauce base:

Fry the garlic on medium heat until golden in sesame oil.

Remove from heat and add sugar, salt, hoisin, soy sauce and sherry.

Put back on the heat and simmer until the sugar dissolves.

Time to add your ingredients:

Choose your ingredient selection according to your tastes and what you have available to you. It's more about varied textures than a blend of flavoured ingredients.

Use one handful of each ingredient unless noted.

Add ingredients one at a time, starting with the one that will take the longest to cook.

Braise each for a few minutes before adding the next until all of them are done.

Add stock as required.

Feeds 4-8 depending on the number of ingredients used. It's a bit of a banquet. Serve on a little rice.

+++

More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Pigments & colours for oil painting artists

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Photo by gearyste

It began innocently enough with the decision to do an inventory of all my oil paint colours. This led to an investigation into pigment codes, the internationally standardised colour index names such as PV 14 (that one is Cobalt Violet). Then it was down the rabbit hole of information searching for drying times, lightfastness, opacity, working properties, toxicity, recommendations, conflicting information, incomplete information, current colours, discontinued colours, new colours... I resurfaced about 9 days later.

I'll summarise what I found. It won't take 9 days.

There are some great resources online if you want to find out about the colours that you use. No need to search around, I have some gems lined up.

All of the resources here I have printed out and put into a folder of their own for my easy reference, along with the pigment charts from the paint manufacturers that I use or like, my inventory of the paints I have and would like to try, and my super dooper spreadsheet of all the most relevent info in one at-a-glance chart...

Art School At Home - a blog with an excellent overview of common pigments in each colour group. Written by an oil painter learning her way through the maze of information. Ideal as a first stop. The link is to the first post on the colour groups.

Pigments for making Artist's Paint - Paintmaking.com - the pigment section of this website is extraordinarily useful. Lots of information that is useful to a painter (oils, acrylic, watercolour, fresco). Goes into more depth, covers more pigments than Art School At Home and is still very accessible reading.

Oils and Pigments by Jan Esmann - pdf - free download made available by this artist who makes his own paints. Very useful, eyeopening, if more technically informative than most artists will need. Contains the sort of information that an oil painter would be interested in. A bit of history, working properties, working lightfastness, do's and don'ts etc.

Color Index Pigment Information Database - this website is a world unto itself. All the pigments used for colour are listed, broken into their colour groups (yellow, red etc). There are links to manufacturers of most of the colours, a little bit of history on the pigment, official lightfastness, toxicity, and general notes.

Dick Blick Art Supplies - on the page of each individual tubed colour is a tab of pigment info. This covers a lot of pigments. Very handy.

The Artist's Handbook by Pip Seymour - pdf - I didn't actually print this one out, but I did find it contained quite a bit of useful information when I was researching. A lot of what is in here is covered already in the other resources.

The super dooper bit

Photo by moron noodle

There was no one place where I could find all the information I wanted, at a glance, for oil painting. So I put it together myself. It is gathered from the above resources and about a gazillion google searches for each individual pigment. Though this is as comprehensive as I could make it, I am sure you will be able to find the odd pigment here and there that has been missed. Sorry, there are a lot of pigments in use. All the most common ones are covered. This is what really took up the 9 days of investigating.

It's a print-friendly chart, organised by colour groups, of colour index name, common paint name, oil paint drying time, opacity, useful notes and working lightfastness. Working lightfastness? Yes. Many pigments have a high lightfastness rating on their own but fade in tints or mixes. In practice this means that they fade, as a colour is usually mixed with another.

You may download this pdf chart right here. Oil Paint Pigment Chart. Pass it around if you please.

Hopefully it will be useful during your next paint shopping trip.

Roast Tomatoes & Capsicum (Peppers)

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:25:00 +0000

Easy. Versatile. Thrifty. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Thanks to Pia, Mimi and Sara for helping out with identifying the essence of roast tomatoes.

Here are some pointers:
squishy
intense
red
charred
bursts.

Can you feel it?

***

The meatless meals recipe

Both of these roast vegetables taste heaps better than they sound and are dead easy to make. They're also good with some mediterranean herbs sprinkled on them. The roasting brings out the flavour of the vegetable and intensifies it in a really moreish way.

Roast Tomatoes

Use as many or few tomatoes as you have or like. It's wonderful to make a large batch of these and keep them in the fridge to use in salads, or on the side of a main meal or whenever they take your fancy.

Chop tomatoes into 1/8ths and put on a baking tray in a single layer.

Sprinkle with salt. Use the same amount of salt coverage as you would for a tomato sandwich, plus a little more.

If you like, smear the tomatoes with pesto or basil infused oil.

Bake in a 180C / 350F oven for 30-60 minutes.

Remove from the oven just as bits on the tomatoes begin to go black.

Roast Capsicum (Peppers)

As with the roast tomatoes, it's superb to do a large batch of these and have them to hand whenever you feel like a hit of their intensified flavour in your meal.

Place whole red capsicums on a baking tray in a single layer and bake in a 180C / 350F oven until the skin bubbles and starts to burn.

Remove and place in a lidded container (tongs!) so the skin is steamed off.

When cook, peel and de-seed.

Add to any salad or dish as you see fit!

+++

More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with cooking conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++

Creative Cauldron - Arthur Streeton

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:19:00 +0000

Above Us Th eGreat Grave Sky

Arthur Streeton was another well known 'Australian Impressionist'. He was of the same era and ilk as Tom Roberts. At his best he is considered to be better, but Roberts was the more evenly masterful painter. This is a little like distinguishing between fine brie and camembert cheeses. They were both highly skilled masters of paint.

Near Heidleberg

Like Roberts, he had the ability to capture a very Australia light and colour.

Still Glides The Stream And Shall Forever Glide

I have a soft spot for landscapes...

Spring

...especially of the poetic, evocative kind. Streeton did this well, hence my admiration. His paintings bounce with feeling.

A Pastoral A Summer Afternoon

Seeing these paintings in real life shows off their masterful brushstrokes, teasing us to define if they are little swirls of paint or leaves and grass.

The Selectors Hut Whelan On The Log

Fire's On

Streeton dabbled in showing life, mostly pioneer bush life, of the time. Though he didn't go as far as making iconic pictures that formed Australia's self image like Roberts, he did make some memorable images of the times.

The Point Wharf Mosman Bay

He made a number of paintings around Sydney that to me really capture a sense of the city.

The Purple Noon

Streeton was introduced to plein air painting by Roberts. This was a brand new thing in Australia in the 1890's. I sense an excitement and pride in these outdoor paintings, perhaps from being involved in something so new and radical? These paintings have the effect of making me wish I had been there, travelling Australia and painting outside with the little group of master painters, making history.

Spirit Of The Drought

Another large part of my attraction to Streeton's work is the period of Symbolism that he explored. Using realistically painted landscapes and figures he could evoke an otherworldlyness that was more concerned with memory, mood or a season than ordinary reality. I really enjoy this imaginative aspect of his work, travelling in the mind. It also reminds me of Art Nouveau and the style of Alphonse Mucha.