Three Potatoes and an Omelette

Someone asked me to do two illustrations for a book: three potatoes, and an omelette with a sprig of basil. It was both thrilling and scary, because no one has ever asked me to draw anything before. And making a painting is a dangerous adventure for me - I never know how it will come out, or even what the next brush-stroke will bring. I seem mostly to hover on the brink of disaster.

I set to work on the potatoes first. I was in despair over them for awhile, but I feel that the final result has a potato-ness that is satisfying to me (I know this looks as though it took five minutes to do, but it didn't):


Then I thought about the omelette. I thought about eggs, a cosmic symbol, and the yolk glowing, yellow-gold. So I painted it floating in the sky, an omelette-sun: