Marking the Summer

I draw at the Farmer’s Market almost every week over the summer.That’s because it’s part of my weekly routine and because I like chronicling the summer in produce as we move from early to mid to late summer.

This piece from early June says that the cherries and stone fruit had hit the market already.

On days when I can only do a 5 minutes sketch, a pen and crayons is all I use. You’ll notice some of these super-quick, mostly dry media sketches are in a book with really thin paper. This is a blank Midori notebook, not a sketchbook. I’ll write a longer post about it soon since I’m using it and liking it a lot.

A week later the melons arrive.

Sometimes I’ll add a bit of color or detail to an on-location sketch as soon as I get home. With this one above, I found the vertical strip of white space “spoke” too much, so I added in a darker color (below) to try and bring the focus back to the melons.

The end of June, and melons are everywhere. The first corn is appearing, but in small quantities.

And in July, it’s squash-takes-over season.

I’ll be back at the market next week to sketch (and buy) sweet corn from the Brentwood corn growers. Best corn ever. Especially when it’s roasted over coal and then smothered in a mixture of lime, red chilli powder and salt.