Bon Bon Restaurant and Middle of the Night Painting

I can't say why I was up painting last night until 3:30 am, I just have a lot of ideas to work out!  I'll share the work in progress -- which is very much idea generation more than anything else -- below.  But first!  After 4 weeks here and only a few restaurant meals out, I treated myself to lunch at Bon Bon.  It's a Michelin-starred restaurant in Sesmaria (which is next to Carvoeiro) and I had an amazing lunch!

The restaurant has either a 4 or 5 course menu and it highlights local Algarvian food and cuisine.   Fish, shellfish, lamb, chickpeas and seaweed all show up in beautifully plated food. Many of the dishes are served on ceramic dishes made by a local pottery studio and shaped like fish or sardine cans and the like.

I won't show you the course by course, but here’s a taste.  This was the "amuse bouche", a seabass mousse with tomato gelee in a nori cup, followed by the Algarvian fish stew.  It only got more and more wonderful with every dish.  After 4 weeks of eating mostly whatever in my little kitchen, this was pure delight.

As for the middle of the night painting frenzy.  I have this idea about combing elements of what I've seen and experienced, something that has been emphasized in workshops I've been in to unleash creativity.  I guess during the normal daytime hours, my creativity has been too leashed, so to speak.  So here's a couple of bursts of energy from last night (one of which is of course very conventional).