Bushels

6"X4" Gouache on paper

My muse has deserted me. I haven't been able to do so much as a sketch all week. The fact that I am in a race against time to finish painting my house (as in gallons, 3in brushes and ladders, not tubes, brights and easels) before the weather puts an end to my efforts for another year, drove me to try something different today. I don't use gouache much and I am not good at leaving well enough alone. I try so hard to keep things loose but only the constraint of time forced me to finish this one quickly.

Tomatoes, bushels of them keep on appearing on my back patio. If we all pitch in we can usually process a bushel in under half an hour. This fills a 20 litre pot which then needs to be boiled down for several hours, stirring all the time. When the sauce has reached the right consistency (i.e. it can't be boiled down any further without catching on the bottom of the pot) it is cooled, bagged and frozen. we usually do 15-20 bushels each year and this keeps us in sauce until next tomato season.