Habanero - painting a day

"Habanero" oil on canvas panel, 5x7", available at my Etsy store.

The white dish is one of the items I picked up during my Salvation Army hunt for new still life props. I picked it because I thought the reflective surface on the inside would work well, and I was attracted to the subtle basket weave pattern on the outside. What clinched the deal is the name of the pattern printed on the bottom of the bowl: "Totally Today". I mean, like, totally! Today!

I watched "Rivers and Tides", a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy last night. If you don't know his work he does sculptures from materials he finds on site. The works are often ephemeral, and quite elegant. There was one sequence in the film where he was building an object from stones on the beach, racing the tide, and it collapsed on him four times. After the fourth collapse he said with each attempt he's learning more about the stone, but it still has more to teach him. I feel that way about this bowl. It still has a lot more to teach me.