"Throwing Tomatoes #45 Beefsteak" Tom Richard

Throwing Tomatoes #45 – Beefsteak, 2025

Acrylic on canvas

10 x 8”

$600.00

The history of throwing tomatoes (or other vegetables) to express feelings of distain, disgust, or dislike is one of our oldest forms of expression.

Beasts: behaving in a crude or horrible way. Imagination: ideas of things that are not real.

To complete unfinished work that was started before the pandemic, I searched for imagery to add. These pieces incorporated imagery of toys with “dangerous” stuff (germs, people screaming, splatters, caution signs, targets, ants, peeps…).

I worked for months with little to no success. I cleaned out my garden and picked the last tomatoes.  To realize or fuse past ideas with the present, I primed some panels, threw tomatoes at them, made studies, and then painted what splattered tomatoes look like. Well, the studies blossomed into a series of 50+ paintings.