Good enough to…paint
Certain vegetables are much better painted than cooked. Beets fall into that category, as does Swiss chard and turnips. These lovely Nantes carrots with their green stems and long roots still attached begged to be memorialized on paper rather than consumed. I started with a very quick, but careful sketch, determined not to get too fussy with detail. I kept the first few washes of watercolor loose, too. That enabled me to suggest the lacy leaves, rather than get caught in exactitude and overwork the piece. Now that the painting is done, the carrots lay limp and inedible…but I wouldn’t want them any other way.
Watercolor on Fabriano hot press paper, 9”x12″
(Nantes carrots get their name from their place of origin in Nantes, France. They are sweeter than other varieties, but don’t have a long shelf life.)
Drawn In 
They look good enough to eat! You have the light just right on the large one. And the leaves are so delicate. Hard to believe this is “loose”. Will there be any more fall veggies?
Thanks! I’m hoping to paint a vegetables series this fall– all things from the farmers market. These carrots were good enough to eat, but I kept them too long because I thought I was going to paint them again. They’re in the compost to enrich next year’s crop of artwork.