This painting of tomatoes is part of my Painting a Day for Pandemic project. Every day through the end of the April I'm going to paint & sell an original watercolor for $50 & at the end of the month, donate half the proceeds to a person or organization in particular need due to the current economic situation.

‘Tomatoes’ | When I was fifteen I worked at the Fruit Shack. It was pretty much exactly how it sounds except we also had vegetables. The building was an old, very small barn & the actual shopping area was under a roof that extended off the perimeter of the barn on three sides. This may come as a surprise to you, but this was not a temperature-controlled situation, so it was a super pleasant job in nice weather, but in the more extreme seasons, a bit trying. In late summer when the local tomatoes started coming in, customers would speed up through the dusty gravel parking lot, asking excitedly for certain heirloom varieties. German Johnsons always seemed to produce the most enthusiasm. I thought tomatoes were fine but didn’t really get all the hubbub. Well, now into my mid-30’s, I think I’ve become one of those people. I freaking love tomatoes & I grow my own so I have the added the excitement of picking them right off the vine (which is one of my favorite smells in the whole wide world). This year I’m growing the heirloom variety Purple Cherokee & a grape variety called Juliet. I just got them in the ground a couple of weeks ago so I have many more weeks of anticipation. My fifteen year old self may not have appreciated the nuances of all that good produce I was stocking & selling but I think the Fruit Shack set the stage for appreciating these things a little later in life.