Basil Fawlty

Description

Open Edition Reproduction –

Herb Trilogy No2.  Herbs gathered from my garden featuring two varieties of basil – sweet and lemon. 

This is the second in a series of three herb oil paintings, this one is the most delicate. It has two varieties of basil – sweet and basil, common mint, Vietnamese mint, curly leaf parsley, curry leaves, birds eye chillies and fennel leaves.  The shadows are more subtle in this work.

All the herbs were grown in my cook's garden, and not a day goes by without something picked and used in my cooking.  The fennel grows wild amongst my rose garden, the fine feathery leaves contrasting the rambling iceberg roses.

I used to have a massive vegetable and herb garden when I had a restaurant and vineyard in the Hunter Valley and the house overlooked an enormous rose garden.  The gardens were supplemented by a plentiful supply of cow manure, hay, mushroom compost and irrigation linked to the vineyard. 

Living in suburbia means my gardens are limited in size and sunlight, soils supplemented by trips to the local hardware store and a large water bill.  However, my love of fresh herbs in cooking is the inspiration for this series of paintings.