Brooklyn Flea

"Brooklyn Flea", oil on canvas, 16x20 in. For sale on Etsy.

The keyword for this painting was "flea". As in the purplish-red color flea, or puce. Since fleas, the insects, are pretty gross and I really don't like them, I had a harder time than usual developing my subject matter for this one. I thought of flea markets and Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, both of which I like a little more than the insect. Still, I wanted to include the insect a little bit, so a large flea is mixed into the background of the painting.

In the fragmented foreground, there is a woman in an apron working on something and some bowls of food. The image comes from an online New York Times article about the Smorgasburg food market at the Brooklyn Flea. I've never been to the Brooklyn Flea. I've only visited NYC once so far, and I didn't get to see much during that visit. I *really* want to go back as soon as possible, especially to Brooklyn since the art scene is booming there. So that was on my mind while I worked on this.

I made a Red Hot Chili Peppers station on Pandora so that I could listen to Flea while I worked.