The Gentle Basket Seller

Oil on canvas - 2011 - 43cm x 33cm - (sold, private collection)

In the busy Fes central market, Mohamed sits every day amongst his piles of baskets. In our first two and a half years in Morocco, we bought many baskets from him, both for our home use and for gifts for friends back in the States. His gentleness was part of what endeared him to my family. His quiet unassuming manner was a relief from the more “active salesmen” of the market. I was also learning about the Fibonacci spiral as a composition device at the time so some of the baskets got nudged slightly to “fit” a more pleasant composition … and one basket was totally replaced by a different one in the creative process. See the images below for comparison.

Process Images ...
Jeff Painting the Basket Seller

Painted in my tiny studio in the balcony room of our Tanger home.

Basket Maker - drawing on canvas

I spent a lot of time organizing and shifting the background pieces of this composition to get it just right.

Basket Seller - fibonacci spiral

Part of the fun and wonder of setting up this painting’s composition was that I was learning about the Fibonacci spiral/sequence and trying to apply it to my work. It was learning and wrestling. And I was amazed to see that it really had an effect on the whole.