Today's painting is another still life courtesy of the kitchen (funny how often food is immortalized by artists). Potatoes are a rather versatile subject, you may not realize it, but you've seen them star in Star Wars as asteroids! Yeah, those guys at ILM are pretty creative. Anyhow, this painting is interesting especially if you watch the video, at the 6:33 mark you'll see a 7th potato materialize out of nowhere. First of all, it's sudden appearance is due to me painting it while the camera was off unbeknownst to me (dead batteries or full card, not sure which) but it is also worth noting that the extra potato was not originally intended to be in the composition. That potato was actually the potato on the forefront, I moved it later for composition sake, I didn't like that open space on the left side. That's the beauty of being an artist, as Claudio Bravo said,

"La gente dice que pinto la realidad, sí, pinto la realidad, pero no cualquier realidad, hay que componer... Un artista tiene que componer, es una cosa que una camera no puede hacer."

"People say that I paint reality, yes, I paint reality, but not just any reality, one must compose...An artist has to compose, it's something that a camera cannot do "

What he's saying (and the point that I'm making) is that the artist has a the freedom and responsibility to tweak and adjust what he is looking at in order to improve the composition of the piece. Michelangelo said he felt like a co-creator with God, I like this sentiment and love the ability an artist has to change anything (s)he wants!