#158 Centurea Flower

In a fine tradition of painting the best flower from the garden here is one of many centurea flowers about to spring open. If you know the plant you will know how complicated the petal form is and will probably realise why I have chosen to paint one that is just peeking from its bud. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#157 Wah Wah Bits

This painting is a little departure and features the most objects in one painting in this series. These are all bits I took out of my wah wah pedal when I turned it into a Bass wah wah pedal. I would bore you with the detail but I cant remember exactly what I did, needless to say it works and sounds very good with bass guitar but still sounds good with guitar, just deeper sounding. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#156 Piece of Ginger

We had a very tasty thai green curry for tea, this is the rest of the ginger used in making it. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#155 Rock Cake

In the fine tradition (lapsed a little over the last couple of weeks) of painting sweetie cakie treats on a Monday night here we have a gorgeous cranberry and apricot rock cake. Baked yesterday but still tasty today and the fruit has got even tastier. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#154 Hammer Head

I wont keep you as long as yeasterday! Another garden casualty, this broke in the heat of battle against a pesky stake that wouldnt back down. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#153 Oriental Soup Spoon

You may or may not have noticed that I am rather fond of objects with a story. This is one such object. Now, for maximum Dan Young, Daily points the object should have a link with the day it was painted such as the Hot Cross Bun from Good Friday or yesterdays Courgette Seedling, others like the Fossil have been around for years (yes, thats right, millions of years). But score only slighlty less points because of it. Just so you know the points system, like the rule book, doesn't really exist, its all in my head.

This oriental style spoon was part of a bowl set we had and used to enjoy chinese chicken soups and the like from. Until one day one of the spoons dissapeared. We thought little of the other spoon over the years and we moved into our current house.

As keen gardeners (in truth Debbie is keener than myself, I am a fair weather gardener!) we produce our own compost. So valuable is this comodity we spent some time and effort moving our compost heap when we moved house. Which, incedently, has paid huge benefits in the quality of the soil here. One important part of compost production is the turning of it, I understand this mixes up the little beasties so they spread all the way through the decomposing matter helping it rot away quickly. Well, one day among the beasties, rotting apple cores, cardboard and grass clippings the missing spoon appeared out of the dirt with but one chip to remember its epic ordeal by.

That was a few months ago now, before I started this project, 'so what on earth has it got to do with today?' you ask. We found it (again) today while clearing out the shed were it has been languishing since it was found (originally) plus I quite fancied painting it. It doesn't seem quite right for it to resume its previous job of providing one of us with soup. Which is a shame. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#152 Courgette Seedling

Its the time of year when seedlings need thinning out, fantastic! Never before have we had a use for the spare seedling pulled from its pot to allow its more succesful freind to thrive and eventually grow far more courgettes than we will ever need! Watch out later in the year for a little courgette with its flower attached, just not from this plant..Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#151 Purple Tulip

The next in the series of things that look good in the garden today painting is this purple tulip. Smaller and more delicate than the orange one from a few paintings ago. This is one of the first to change to this lovely purple colour. Sheveninings Violet, Ultramarine Blue Dark and Carmine Lake with Naples Yellow highlights if your interested! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#150 Broken Buddha Head

I have had one of those days where no little object appeared in front of me glowing and with the words 'paint me today, Dan' coming from it in a speech bubble. So, I raided my pots of things and bobs in the studio and came across this broken head from a small statue of Buddha. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#149 Jam Danish Pastry

This was the last mini danish in the pack, left just long enough to go stale, I know that because I took the bite. So in honour of it, and its pastry colleagues, I felt honour bound to paint it and record its proud existence in this painting. Plus, I love painting cakes with jam in them. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#148 Popcorn

Mmmmm Popcorn.

Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#147 Pelargonium Plug Plant

We are fortunate enough to have an allotment, and even more fortunate to have a council that have overplanted this year and have sold the excess to the allotment holders! Less fortunate however was; on bringing them home to pot them on, the fold up box I had put them in well ..folded up and they all fell on the floor. None were damaged (fortunately) and It gave me just the small object I needed to make a painting of. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#146 Maple Leaf

After all the rain and a bit of sun the garden has gone berserk, well its grown a lot. This is from the earliest of the maples we have and has the painting challenge of green and red blending together on the leaves at the same time! I cheated a little and picked an especially red leaf here. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#145 Fake Pebble

Heres an odd one, a fake pebble from the gas fire. I thought it better to paint it cold like this but it looks far cooler when its glowing bright orange. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#144 Candle

This candle hasn't been lit yet, the melting is from when we left it too close to the fire! We were suddenly aware of a soft fragrance drifting across the room then realised this was slowly melting in the fireplace. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#143 Three Blueberries

Blueberries have become my breakfast luxury. They are a recent favourite mixed in with porridge so they burst with hot sweet fruitiness when you bite into them. I had always dismissed them as a bit bland before but heated up with sweet porridge they are lovely. Unfortunately this particular batch are a bit mean and underripe, hey ho. Oil on gesso 16 cm x 12cm.

#142 Wooden Bead

Another bit of booty from clearing the studio up over the holidays. A wooden bead that has escaped from its normal home with its beady friends in the bead box. This was found in a mug! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#141 Kangaroo Head

I had hoped I would find something to paint as I sorted out the studio this weekend. This poor decapitated Roo was hiding behind an old vice and being squashed by a power drill. We have no idea where the body is or even where it came from, I am just pleased that he wont suffer any more in my toolbox. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#140 Easter Egg

Happy Easter, well I had to didn't I? This was a good choice because it came in two parts, the tiny speck of chocolate you can see is all thats left of the other half! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#139 Orange Peel

I was a bit surprised I haden't painted a bit of orange peel before now but, I haven't. A whole Orange would be too big to paint for this project although I nearly painted a satsuma over Christmas. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#138 Hot Cross Bun

I haven't painted any cakes or biscuits for a while, and as it's Good Friday it had to be a hot cross bun. Well a half eaten hot cross bun, I have to experience all of the cake to really be able to paint it. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#137 Ikea Tool

No prizes for guessing what I did today. The bank holiday means sorting out the studio, starting with putting together shelves (impossible without this little tool) followed by staining white (I will save you the story of getting hold of the stain) and varnishing. Then the exciting moment when things that have languished in boxes for two and a half years have somewhere to go. I look forward to being able to lay hands on things at a moments notice. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#136 Lichen Covered Twig

This little twig is covered with the most fantasticly coloured lichen, it caught my eye a couple of weeks ago when I walked into work while the car was at its MOT. It also caught my eye today as I was clearing out the studio so it deserved to get painted. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#135 Crushed Garlic

Another ingredient from my chili recipe, a crushed clove of garlic. The Chili from last nights painting wasn't very hot, I am a little disappointed to not have a warm glow on my tongue and throat as I write this ..but I don't. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

Apologies to whoever buys this as it may smell ever so slightly of garlic, as do a small selection of my brushes, my palette and my fingers. I crushed it 'live' in the studio because I was initially going to paint it uncrushed, but that's boring!

#134 Chilli Pepper

I will be making a spicy chilli tomorrow so I had to paint this tonight, as I will be trying to chop it up without getting any on my hands tomorrow morning. I always find they taste better if cooked in the morning then reheated in the evening. It's also a great way to test out my cadmium red deep paint, have I mentioned my new paint? Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

I keep forgetting to mention that I am featured in 'Artists & Illustrators' magazine this month. Check it out if you can!

#133 Rhubarb Shoot

After a weekend of gardening it seems only right I paint something else from the garden. This tiny rhubarb shoot bodes well for the harvest later on in the year, well, it did until I went round the garden picking leaves to choose one to paint. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#132 Packet of Seeds

I like the symmetry of painting flowers seeds today after the orange tulip from yesterdays post. These morning glory seeds have been planted today, which is handy as I can now see when we planted them without having to go through the bother of writing it down! Note to self: remember to paint a morning glory flower when they come up. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#131 Orange Tulip

This could only have been more Dutch if I was wearing clogs when I painted it. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#130 Blue Lighter

Armed with my new colours, I am in search of highly coloured objects, man made or natural....none are safe! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#129 Tube of Paint

This one is for paint fans everywhere! My new paint arrived today, very exciting. This one is Old Holland Turquoise Deep, one of the sexiest colours in the batch. Apologies to pigment fans, I haven't given a colour update recently so, this one was painted using the colours; Turquoise Blue Deep, Emerald Green, Ulramarine blue deep, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red Deep, Zinc White , Titanium White, Shevenings Blue Light. The paint seemed to fall off the brush with ease during this painting, I never know if thats down to me or down to the paint...today it was the paint I am sure of it, thank you Old Holland. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.