the colour orange

Inspiration comes to me in many ways. When I'm out walking with a camera, I can be inspired by very simple things. Over the years, I have found myself becoming more interested in details than in the "big picture". 

But I don't always have to be out with my camera to get inspired.

A few weeks ago, a blogger friend (Helen Eaton from Word Weaver Art) posted a painting of oranges she created. They looked quite tasty, but the painting struck a totally different chord with me.

Oranges Still Life 2 by Helen Eaton - wordweaverart.blogspot.com

The colour orange always reminds me of my mom. She passed away from breast cancer when I was just 21 but still....over 35 years later....the colour orange makes me think of her. Our home was filled with orange accents....orange pottery vases, a focal wall in the kitchen filled with orange poppy covered wallpaper, orange shag carpet in our tv room, an orange coat she used to wear, she even painted our outside stairs orange :)

Today we had sunshine that was casting shadows through one of our windows so I decided to create my own image of oranges. I pulled out a small tablecloth that my mom used to use when setting up a table for bridge. I've moved it from home to home over the years but have never once used it but it seemed the appropriate time. I put everything on a chair and used a piece of blue bristol board for the backdrop.

Unfortunately, I didn't love the base of the bowl in the original photograph. I didn't pay attention to the angle and only two stones were showing which made the whole thing feel wonky to me. If you compare the photo below to the one at the beginning of the post, you can tell me whether you agree or not.

original photograph

Hmmm....now that I look at both, I kind of like the original photograph. Food for thought (lol).

There is a reason I've been cropping the photos to squares, but I won't go into that now.