"Peaches" -- oil on stretched canvas -- 18x24" -- Margie Guyot

I'd found these wonderful peaches at a little market and wanted to use them in a still life painting. As soon as I set them on this table, the thing that struck me as being most interesting was the way the sunlight and shadows fell. That made the whole thing exciting.

What I became very aware of is how quickly the sun changes! Or more correctly, how fast the earth rotates. This exact pattern of sunlight/shadow only lasted a couple minutes. Every day I had to be ready, paint mixed, brush in hand, waiting for 1:10 in order to see the same vision, how the light patterns affected the peaches and highlights on the antique glass bowl.

As usual, I'd used a vintage tablecloth in this one. It was horribly wrinkled -- and since I hadn't found my iron since moving up here, I decided to make the most of the wrinkles. Painting them in was less work than digging around for that stupid iron & ironing board!

The glass bowl I inherited from my mom. How it survived all these years without breaking, weathering about 3 or 4 moves, is amazing to me. It's got an intricate pattern of gold-gilt roses.

And let me tell you -- those peaches were perfect! Sweet and dripping with juice!