I am impressed by Torrie Smiley's wide range of subjects which run the gamut from still lifes to landscapes/waterscapes with culture, portraits and touches of humor in between. Her food paintings are so realistic and inviting and it was difficult to make a choice. This one from her food series caught my eye as I happened to have a couple of avocados on hand which I was preparing for lunch, and thought it would be apropos.

Mine is a humorous rip of Torrie's avocados--hers so pristinely painted and inviting, mine unattractive and unappealing (at this stage).

Torrie's velvety avocado against the rich red background beckons to be devoured, and that is exactly what virtually happened in my rip of her artwork. One half quickly disappeared, leaving only the pit upon which I pasted the label for identification. The other half, no longer appetizing, began to brown-out in the air.

I cut an avocado in half and photographed both halves from slightly different angles, had one half for lunch, saved the pit with the label and photographed it separately on the kitchen counter with a macro lens. Then, manipulating the images in PS, I removed one half from the original photo for layer one, rotated it, put the pit on another layer, pasted the label on top and positioned it at roughly the same angle as in Torrie's original to create the final composition. The original background was removed and a new background layer was added. Finally I painted in a green background with Studio Artist as opposed to the red background on Torrie's image, to further focus on the organic aspect of the image.

This still life was now a very "still" life with a passé avocado, unlike Torrie's which is so inviting. The idea was to give credence to the original while playing off the theme in a whimsical and decadent way.

We follow similar paths in creating pieces. We photograph and paint from a photo as reference, Torrie with acrylics on canvas and I digitally.