Friday, January 14, 2011

Blood Orange Season


Happy New Year


This period of quiet weeks has never been a favorite time of year for me, but thankfully inspiration comes in strange forms. My favorite fruit, the blood orange, with its visceral blast of tart flavor and color in an otherwise grey January, always raises my spirits. Particularly when mixed with spirits (see margarita recipe below).

Blood Oranges are a mutation of the sweet orange. They are in season from January-April/May and their many types yield a range of colors (that I've attempted to document) and a varying degree of tartness.

Blood Orange Margarita
(yields 4 drinks)

1/2 cup blood orange juice
juice of 1 lime
1 cup orange liquor (triple sec or grand marnier)
ice
1 cup white tequila

Combine all ingredients (except ice) in a measuring cup or pitcher.
Fill a cocktail shaker 3/4 full with ice. Add blood orange mixture.
Shake for a full 30 seconds and pour into salt rimmed glasses.

Maybe winter isn't so bad.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Recent Commission



Here are two large scale watercolors (each are about 4' long) I painted for a client. She commissioned me to create a piece to go in a specific space in her North Carolina home. The client provided me with a few personal snapshots of the Blue Ridge Mountains which I used as a point of inspiration.

I ended up creating two distinctly different paintings for her to choose from. She was thrilled by both versions, but ended up choosing the deep blue/grey palette.