Aren’t Bananas fantastic!
They come in loads of shapes sizes and colours. Bananas make great subjects for paintings, they taste good and they are good for you!
I always have bananas on my shopping list the moment I have only two left.
I have included bananas in various still life paintings over the years. There was an oil painting that sold very soon after I put it in the window of the shop in Clapham.
This is the whole fruit and veg painting, from the archives. A Melon, a pinapple some lemons and tangerines nestle around and behind a hand of big bananas. Green peppers, a purple aubergine and a courgette provide more colour. The fruit and vegetables are bundled on the seat of a chair disguised by an old printed tablecloth with lacy accents.
Its disappearance prompted a commission for a painting of fruit from warm climates with cut melon and citrus fruit, pineapple and, of course, bananas.
Commissioned painting with a tropical flavour.
Red Watermelon with yellow bananas make a colourful still life fruit painting.
I have even used bananas as a kind of display easel, as I did recently for a portrait of my dear mother!
A bunch of bananas is holding my painting of Mother like an easel.
I painted this portrait using my own brand of Acrylic paints.
The unfortunate situation we all find ourselves in this year has made shopping a rare event for me, but I do need to go to my local Post Office to send parcels to customers, if they buy something.
I had no bananas left the other day, and they were on the list, waiting for a few more necessities to join them and make the most of a trip. At last I had a good reason to brave a local shopping spree, a letter and a parcel of Outlines paints had to be sent!
It was to be a longer excursion than intended, and nearly a disappointing one, because there were no bananas to be had, at first, but a two an a half hour round trip proved fruitful in the end.
It involved visiting the post office once, and the convenience shop twice.
Behold the extent of my haul in the photo.
Bananas and milk sustain and the post keeps me in touch.
There were no long airmail envelopes in the newsagents where the post office is housed, so I had to get squat ones. I will have to adjust any printed photos in my letters to avoid the fold.
I really wanted my bananas but no shop deliveries had arrived by 10.30, so I sat in the car and deliberated. Waiting seemed best and I walked back to sit on a bench outside the Red Lion Pub, occasionally chatting to an old man who was passing time in the sun.
Meanwhile a huge cloud grew at the end of the street, magnificent and towering.
The delivery van duly arrived, ‘A taste of the West’ written on the side, and I waited a while longer to give the staff time to unpack the goodies, and for the queue outside to shrink.
In the shop, a part-time helper said she loved my smiley mask. Feel good moment #1.
Walking back, I met a young woman I like who sometimes works in the bakers. We chatted about her very long hair and the colours she has in it. She commented on my hair and said she loved grey, so elegant, and that mine looked fashionably ‘dip-dyed’. I think she meant it! Feel good moment #2.
On my arrival home 25 swallows had gathered on the wires; the flock is swelling. Swallows always lift my mood and they found their way onto a card about masks – something else entirely! Feel good moment #3.
I painted a hasty sketch on a discarded food box in Acrylic.
I thought the hours were wasted, but now I think perhaps they were not.
A parcel is on its way to my customer and I have stamps for Europe, envelopes, milk and bananas fulfilling all my needs. What a party I’ll have!
I sincerely hope you are having as great a time as I.