The Times They are a Changin'! So, We gain one more hour of light!

Work in progress (detail)

On Saturday night, the 28th, We set in Spain the clocks one hour ahead. The days are starting to get longer, which means I gain one more working hour for painting with daylight. I love this! Anyways, Canary Islands is close to the Equator, so we have much longer days.

Last week, I worked on the still-life oil painting with lemons and the red Seltzer bottle (see work in progress above). The details are forming now. I would say it might be finished by the end of the week. I do not rush to finish oil paintings for a few good reasons; one of them is I wait for the painting to dry completely, so I am ready to apply the new layer. In that way, the colors don't mix in a muddy way. Secondly, I give my eye a break. Why do I do that? When you look at the same image for many hours, you won't be able to see your mistakes anymore. So this way, I always catch things to fix.

Another piece is finished for my ongoing project; "Kitchen Stories". We bought some Canarian green tomatoes. My mother used to make the recipe I share below. It's a delicious sour and sweet vegetable dish. Enjoy it :) Before the recipe, I will remind you to SIGN UP to my blog and receive my "Early Works" ebook via email. 

Have a great week! 

Sketching for watercolor painting

"Green Tomatoes" by Birsen Ozbilge, 

watercolor on paper, 9,6" x 7,4" (24.5 × 19 cm.)

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ZEYTINYAGLI YESIL DOMATES 

(Green Tomatoes with Olive Oil)

Ingredients:

1 kg green tomatoes

1 onion

4 table spoon rice

1/4 glass olive oil

1 table spoon sugar

1/4 lemon juice

1/2 tea spoon salt

1 table spoon concentrated tomatoe paste

1 glass of water

Cut the onions tiny and cook with 1 table spoon of oil for 5 min in the pressure pot the cover open. Add tomatoes (cut them in 4-5 pieces), rice, water, tomatoe paste, lemon juice, sugar and salt. Close the lid, cook for 5 minutes after the vapor comes out. After turning the heat off leave it on the stove about 10 more minutes than move it away to cool down about 15 min. Serve it cold, enjoy it!  (if you wish to cook in a normal pot  20 min. will be enough (don't swirl the food) Once is cooked, let it cool completely. 

Here is my cooked green tomatoes.

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