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Purple Basil - Original oil painting by George De Chiara

Purple Basil

 My wife and I have been experimenting with our green thumbs for the last few years. Slowly, but surely, they are getting greener, and, every now and again, we hit one out of the park. We are lucky that in Texas, we can garden almost year round and try to make the most of that by re-planting after we pull up the old crops. This year we had one whole bed of onions that we harvested early in the summer. Afterwards, we planted a bunch of plant seeds we had for a while. We weren't sure if they would still be good or not, but we figured we take the chance and see what happens. Almost everything we planted sprouted up, some faded fast or never produced fruit. Others, like this purple basil, took off beyond our dreams. I'm not sure how much for sure we harvested, but below is a picture of the plants pulled up and placed in a bucket so I could get them all in the house. Tomorrow we'll make basil ice cubes for the winter. If you're a gardener and haven't tried this for your herbs, it's totally worth it. They are very simple to make. Just chop up your basil or any other herb. We've done parsley and oregano, in addition to basil. Once you have it chopped up, mix in either a little olive oil or water and fill up an ice-cube tray. Once they are frozen, you can pop them out and put them in plastic bags to store. Then when ever you need some just throw a few ice cubes in what ever you are cooking. I think it tastes much better then dried herbs.

 I had intended to take step-by-step pictures of the painting process, and I did take a few, but the painting changed so much as I painted it that these images will be more confusing than useful. I can show you where I was when I thought I had finished this painting.

At this point, I thought I was done with this painting. However, when I placed it on the shelf to dry and really stood back from it I felt it didn't read very well. When I showed it to my wife, it was one of the first things she commented on. At that point, I made the decision to change the background. While I was at it, I also wanted to address the glass. I didn't like the way it sat on the edge of the canvas and really wanted to get rid of it altogether. So I took the painting back into the studio and put it back up on the easel. Here's what it looks like after the changes.

Purple Basil ©

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.