Canola at Neuanlage

Canola at Neuanlage

8" x 8"

oil on cradled panel

Nicki Ault, 2013

available exclusively at Lifestyles By Darrell Bell Gallery

When it comes to painting a canola field I find the colour so intense that simplicity seems key. If you have never seen canola in person it is perhaps difficult to imagine the intensity of the yellow. It is glorious! The magic really happens when it is next to a crisp blue sky or set against a brewing storm.

The other week when a friend invited me out to the country to teach me how to drive a quad she was also telling me a bit about canola, one of the crops they grow at their farm. When the yellow flowers fade away the crop looks a light green colour and these long, skinny pods are left on the plants (like a mini string bean). Inside the pods are the seeds that the oil comes from and they must be harvested when the seeds are black. Before then they aren't ready. The seeds are quite tiny and it made me wonder exactly how many it would take to extract enough oil to fill the bottle of canola oil I buy at the grocery store. It's a head scratcher!