This is it in an unfinished state — in the interest of keeping some level of surprise for the exhibition, it’s the only pic I’m going to show of this one (although it is finished now). At 1.4 x 1.7 metres, it’s the biggest painting I’ve ever done. It was going to be 1.7 x 2 metres, until dad and I were putting the frames together and I realised how big that is.
Time to start the next painting. I bought a new roll of canvas yesterday, so I can stretch the remaining frames and get this thing done. I’m really happy with my progress so far — for once in my life, I actually predicted the schedule correctly, instead of my general practice of completely underestimating how long things take.
It seems bookboy is back, and I followed this link he posted to an article on why libraries still matter.
Honestly, even with the amount of time I spend on the internet, I don’t know what I’d do without the library.
Here’s my summer holiday reading list:
And my viewing schedule for the week, all courtesy of the library (actually, a couple of libraries — I have more library membership cards in my wallet than I care to think about):
A few people asked for some of the recipes from last week’s dinners. Here’s the one for Vegetable Dhal.
Preheat your oven to 200ºC (400ºF).
Ingredients
1.5 cups dried red lentils
1.5 cups split peas
1L vegetable stock
3 carrots
1 potato
1 Spanish onion
1 brown onion
1 sweet potato
1 zucchini
1 eggplant
3 tomatoes
(you can vary the vegetables — just use whatever you have or like)
2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
1 thumb of ginger, minced
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1-2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk
a squeeze of lemon juice
Method:
Wash your split peas and soak them for a day or so. Dice all your vegies except for the tomatoes, and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes. Wash the lentils, and place them in a large saucepan with the split peas and stock. Bring them to the boil, then simmer until the split peas are soft. After 20 minutes, add the diced tomatoes to the vegetables in the oven, and bake them for another 10 minutes. Add the spices and sugar to the saucepan, and combine well. Remove the vegetables from the oven and add them to the dhal. Mix well and turn off the stove. Stir in the coconut milk and lemon juice, and serve immediately with rice.
This makes a lot of dhal — be prepared!