Ah tomatoes, we have had a tomato fest over at daily paintworks. I love this one.
You and I are of the same vintage, 1959 was a good year I think! Judging from your paintings it is all getting better and better. Maturing like a fine wine.
( BTW, I do miss France but Cornwall really is home for me so all is good, if you are ever down this way we should meet up for a bit of painting.)
Outwardly this is a beautiful still-life : magnificent execution of textures and colours. But behind the facade, I believe there is a thought about being and nothingness. In the background, a bottle... which personally looks like a bevel-edged mirror with its vertical white highlights, which echoes disappearance. No reflections of cheese and tomato, only a plume of smoke within. A work about our wonderful but so perishable existence. I believe this painting is a "Vanité" in the finest tradition of the seventeen's century (Lubin Baugin for instance). On the calendar, today is... Saint Agustin's day. A mere coincidence of course. Probably.
Julian, je sais maintenant pouquoi j'ai comparé la bouteille à un miroir: c'est en regardant hier Les Ménines de Vélasquez dans lequel il y a un miroir scintillant au fond du tableau et qui réfléchit les visages du couple royal!
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