Day 54: The Flower Stand, S. Ambrogio

Day 54: The Flower Stand, S. Ambrogio

This is the best market in Florence. It has everything: fruit, vegetables, bread, meat, cheese, clothes, spices and of course flowers. And it’s all fresh, it’s quite a sight! There’s even a little restaurant inside where you can eat tripe sandwiches (or a hamburger, if you’re American).

Today there was a strike at the market, in fact I was surprised to see the flower vendor there. All of the fruit and vegetable vendors were on strike in protest of the city’s new proposed tax hike for the vendors here.

I thought that today must really be my lucky day because usually it’s just a mob of people, painting would be difficult, if not impossible. In my opinion, the utter chaos is part of the beauty of the market, but even though I’ve thought about it many times, I’ve just never dared attempt to paint it. Today there were just a few people, so I set up to paint. As soon as I set up my easel a car came and parked right in front of me, so I moved over. Then, when I went to put my canvas on the easel I realized that the wingnut that holds the canvas tight in place was missing. I went to the hardware shop nearby to get a new one but they were out. The second shop had one, but then I realized that I only had 4 cents! They laughed at this and gave me the wingnut for 4 cents! Once I finally got painting a woman with a video camera approached me, already filming. She asked me a whole series of questions about the market, did I shop there? Do I paint here often? etc. Even though I was a little shy about being filmed, it was fun and it turns out that she is doing research on the economics of the markets in Italy. When she sends me the video I’ll post it for you on the blog site.

Anyway, I would normally never attempt a painting here, and I didn’t have a lot of time, they were already taking everything down before I finished. But not only was today’s timing perfect with the lack of people, but the painting a day project has really put me into a mindset of just going for it, to just go for what I want to paint, whether or not I think I will be successful or know how. I got a lot of passing commentary today with mixed reviews, but I know that the real point of making this painting is just because I want to try, and what am I waiting for?

To buy this painting or view it on my website, click here. To see other paintings from the 100 day project, click here. All pantings from the project cost $100 (+$15 shipping), are 6×8”, painted on birch and are unframed. You can buy paintings directly from the website using paypal or contact me at kellyaskey@gmail.com

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