Fresh-picked Onions from Red Earth Farm (+ a question I often get asked)

Private Collection

I often get asked "how do you do it -- how do you keep painting so much?" I have several thoughts on this, so I might split it up into a few posts. One place to start is that I attribute some of my ability to keep up with and continue to find joy in my daily painting practice in the studio to primarily eating a live food diet. Being that I often paint fruits and vegetables, this pure connection to what I eat creates an overall sense of clear-mindedness, vitality and well-being for me that significantly impacts my painting practice in a positive way.

These beautiful fresh-picked onions came in my Red Earth Farm CSA bounty recently -- this year's spring onions were here later (and were bigger) than last year. Incidentally, when I painted Red Earth Farm's onions around this time two years ago, I also shared my thoughts about raw food and its impact on my work (read that post here).

To purchase my work, view my Current Painting Auctions and All Available Paintings.

Happy Monday,

Spring Onions from Red Earth Farm (+ More Thoughts on FOOD)

Click to view auction  

These fresh-picked spring red onions are from my Red Earth Farm CSA. Last spring, I painted their white onions, and in that post, I also gave my unsolicited review of the amazing 30-Days Raw eCourse that I had just completed online at Viva Institute. You can read last year's post here.

Workshop Testimonials
Continuing with sharing feedback from my recent Sedona Arts Center workshop participants, below is one more comment. I'll post a few more this week.

"Abbey has a rare talent -- that of a gifted painter and teacher. I gained so much from watching her meticulously set up her still life, while describing the importance of placement and light. Her demos were invaluable -- explaining everything from materials to process -- and the outcome magical. I loved Abbey's wonderful energy and the overall ambiance of this workshop -- peaceful, creative, supportive, and challenging all at the same time. I am so thankful so have had the opportunity to meet and work with this amazing artist." ~S. Greer, susangreer.com

If you're curious about working with me, a good place to start is my workshops page.

Happy Monday,

Spring Onions from Red Earth Farm (+ My Thoughts on FOOD)

Click to view auction

I love being a member of the CSA at Red Earth Farm because I every week I get tons of beautiful (and delicious) food -- like these stunning spring onions that were just begging to be painted.

Speaking of food—and as someone who paints food basically every day—I want to share this with you. I rarely "endorse" things on my blog, but I'm too excited about it to not share.

I recently completed this 30-day online Raw Food course and it is, by far, one of the most fun, rewarding, and enjoyable things I've ever done. I had been curious about a raw food diet for a long time (for health reasons), but was nervous about my lack of knowledge about raw food & proper nutrition, and also how much work it might be to eat that way (I have never been much of a kitchen-guru).

I just completed the six-week online program, and I had the best time! It is so much easier than I thought it would be, I understand proper food combining, nutrition issues, recipes, and all that... and I feel like I am experiencing foods "for the first time" in learning about raw food. Here I am making kale chips.

If you're curious, I encourage you to check it out (their next course starts soon). It is obviously still new for me, but I can say that I am already seeing first-hand the amazing health and spiritual benefits of a raw vegan lifestyle. I am inspired, I need a lot less sleep, I have more energy than I know what to do with, I am so excited about food, and I feel physically amazing.

And what I want to begin to write about here is something that I didn't expect would happen: all of this energy and excitement is actually spilling over into my daily painting practice—in the ways that I qualitatively relate to my painting subjects. It is especially humbling and inspiring after all these years of painting fruit and vegetables every day. It's complex, nuanced, and a big topic for me, so I'll be writing more about this soon.

Finally, this all relates to the amazing place I recently visited in Arizona (other than Ajo) called the Tree of Life. More on that soon, too.

P.S. This was my own 100% completely unsolicited/unaffiliated post about 30 Days Raw. 

Spring Onions from Red Earth Farm will be sold by auction that will end at 12:30 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 26th. View Auction

Enjoy,