daily painting titled Oyster and Lemon

Oyster and Lemon

19cm x 10cm (7"x 4") oil on card Painting status: SOLD
Daily painting for Tuesday 6 March, 2007
Posted in Still life paintings
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13 Comments

Nice one Julian! I rescued the shells last time I had oysters on the grounds that they had an interesting surface to draw and should therefore be added to my stockpile of still life artifacts. But they are so much nicer with the oyster still in. This makes me think I need to organise a long lunch at the oyster place sometime soon!
Hi Julian What a splendid image! The textures are so well painted that I can feel the oyster and feel and smell the lemon. The colours speak of the sea. Barbara
Luscious! I can taste it. Yummy, alive and sweet and salty. Makes for a nice breakfast thought here in snowy New England. Leslee
Oh slllllllurp...Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm...Others have commented on wanting to eat your paintings. How DO you manage to make them so sensual. I adore oysters, and rarely get to have them. I'm afraid that if this one were up on our wall it wouldn't last long. This is incredible, and I'd like to go on and on about the "lace" around it...Francis Ponge's poem entitled "L"Huitre" is equal to this most glorious visual repast -- but in the poem one imagines, one does not confront directly the sllllllllllurpiness of "l'huitre"! I don't know whether to thank you or strangle you! I love the painting!
I always recommend strangling, thanks can be so messy.
I've been looking at your paintings for several months now. When I look at 'Oyster and Lemon', it evokes so many memories and feelings. Oysters might be one of the reasons why my partner and I now live in France. We often go to Cancale, where you can sit on the sea front with a paper plate of freshly opened oysters, a wedge of lemon and a glass (well a paper cup) of white wine. Stretching out over the sand in front of you are the oyster beds where the oysters that we buy at Fougeres market come from. That silvery tang is our life here, and your painting captures it. I have often been tempted to try and buy, or bid for one of your paintings, and just now I have tried for the first time. I would have loved to have given this painting to my partner and to see his face light up with recognition. But I can't compete with the buyers across the atlantic. Please paint another oyster some time. Maybe by then my boat will have come in, and on the crest of a wave, I can bid higher.
This seems, in some way, a new accretion of power and depth. Wonderful textures, combinations. I hope you'll make a print of this for those who can't have the original.
there were twelve oysters fresh from the market on friday for the artist and his oyster-mad wife. they waited patiently in the fridge for the muse to strike and only yesterday did the maestro decide to paint one. the wife immediately opened the other eleven, and, though they were delicious, was a little nervous as to their lengthy sojurn in the fridge and so abandoned her fest after three.
...and clara, how i envy you living in Brittany. i sailed there once and it is THE other spot i would love to live in the world. Mostly because of the oysters! In fact we must have a holiday there some time. Maybe then Julian will sit and paint your very own oyster bed for you.
While the oyster is, no doubt, fabulous, I am quite in love with the open lemon slice. I'm not sure I have seen one that is more juicy and evocative than yours.
The more I look at it, the more I love it, and yes, more open fruit and vegees! There's a whole other inner world for the maestro to explore.
It's maybe the only time that Thailand gets to play Texas... You should see (taste/paint) the oysters out here, mate! I am, of course, hoping that sooner or later, you will... Your site's looking terrific. all best, Leo.
Please do make a print of this, Julian!