I picked these lemons from my tree just before a hard freeze. I had thought about looking up a reference photo to add a blossom to the painting to lend to the botanical theme but decided that I wanted only what I could glean from my own photo reference in the composition. Since it was mid december there would be no blossoms on the tree. I decided that a red background would really make the fruit stand away from the back ground most and would create a cheerful color palette for the painting to hang in a kitchen or at least in my kitchen since I love a red and white kitchen.