Pilchards (155g)

It might be a very strange subject, yet it caught my eye – the bright red pilchards’ tin. It’s tiny, it could easily fit in your pocket, it’s thin and long, which makes it kind of cute, and very noticable, as the colours are so strong, promising to be hiding the tastiest contents ever.

Have you ever had pilchards? Do you even know what they are? Pilchards are ‘oil-rich’ fish, which apparently makes them an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids.

The company that puts them into these cute tins says that “they are small, open-ocean fish, which filter-feed on plankton in the nutrient-rich zones of cold currents. They are a staple food for other fish-eating marine life, such as tuna, seabirds, game fish, sharks and dolphins and are only a suitable size for canning once they mature at the end of their second year. Once wild-caught, using the traditional purse-seine fishing method, they are processed and steam-cooked in the can before the final dressing (tomato sauce, brine, etc.) is added.”

They taste nice on toast, yet I like their tin more than I like pilchards. I like it so much that I wanted to have them in one of my paintings – I thought it would be nice to paint a detailed watercolour, but first I went for a quick impression. And no matter how mad this might sound if it has to be quick I choose oils and palette knives.

This time I’ve recorded the process, but just a few steps as it’s really hard to drop everything when you are in the middle of that creative flow.

And so on… and so on…

To cut this long story short – here’s the end result:

I must admit that using palette knives I sometimes feel like a builder putting plaster on walls, but I’m always happy when the end result resembles a painting. And I let you judge if this is the case this time.