Sustained Investigation 2

This artwork is part of a sustained investigation series focusing on the question; How can I represent the journey food goes through from field to plate in artwork format? This is a pretty open question if I'm being honest however it leaves so much space for interpretation that the ideas I can connect with it are never ending. The artwork itself is water color and pen painting/drawing combination of an old European vendor and his goods. He is sitting on a milk crate on the side walk selling goods on market day under the terra-cotta roofs of southern Italy. He also has his rooster with him and he is wearing gloves however it is hard to tell in the painting. The picture is on a weird old fashioned paper, that is much like papyrus that I have never seen before and it is 6"x4". I painted it after a rough sketch in my room with the school water color paint, but I also had a special 0.5mm black felt pen. It took about 2 1/2 hours, however was totally worth it as I think it looks really good and is quite detailed, however it is quite small.

As mentioned above this piece is part of four sustained investigation artworks focusing on the journey food takes from farm to table, the vendor and the market are a very important part of food's journey, and the second leg of the journey. The vendor is the one who goes out and sits long hours on the street with a friendly enough smile in hopes of selling his goods. Any restauranteur worth their stuff goes out to get the freshest ingredients for his or her restaurant and the place to do this is the market, especially in Europe or Italy to be more specific. So in the chronological order of how food gets to the table from somewhere out in the ethos, the vendor is the second and crucial step. The man in the picture is an old Italian vendor, so he's got some crazy white hair but a tame and put together mustache, and he is also wearing quite dapper clothing to make himself presentable, and hopefully sell more goods. His rooster is a bright color and a seemingly random touch, however I wanted to make the painting a little more whimsical and the rooster ties back to the first piece as well as I have a somewhat personal connection to the rooster.

I'm really pleased with this and there is nothing I really would change except for some minor details one would only notice if you really looked at it as I have. Water color is a rather pesky medium and if you know me then you would know my favorite method of painting is acrylic because I have total control. This was the first time in a long while that I have used water color and it I was reminded how flowy it is, and especially on this paper the colors sometimes blended together and would seep from the lower spots to the higher spots as the paper I used isn't perfectly flat. So that was definitely a challenge and hard to work with, especially because there are so many little colors and details. I also am not sure how I feel about the background. I wanted to give him a very simple but Italian backdrop and the terra-cotta roof was a good way to do this, however I wish I had added a little bit more like a palm tree or perhaps a flag. I'm really proud of how the vendor looks, people have always been a major challenge for me and I try to avoid using them in my art as much as possible in fear of screwing it up. But I really like how he looks and he looks very aged and reminds me of my moms old backpacking photos of Italy and France. Overall I'm very proud of this and quite excited for the third installment; TRE, LA VILLAGGIO.