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The Husband was surprised when I combined flowers (pretty) with onions (food, not pretty) in the same still life. But I had my reasons.

I like showing the beauty of mundane objects. Onions are organic spheroids which in a tactile sense combine satiny smoothness with density, and suckulent hidden layers, without which cooked and raw food would not be the same. (OK, I luuuv onions and how they elevate a simple fare.)

Dalias can be somewhat spheroid too, but consist of many soft petals which can take surprising shapes. These ones are what I call spiky, a contrast to the smoothness of the onions.

Complementaries are colours on the opposite of each other on the colour wheel. They contrast most with each other, huewise, and are used to tone down each other in mixes, or to enhance each other by juxtaposing or placing masses adjacent to each other. But in an actual painting, I prefer to not to be limited in my colour choices. The way I do complementaries is to choose objects and backgrounds which contrast in hue -- and then I paint them with the full spectrum of pigments in order to capture the light and the mood.

This painting is based on the yellow/violet complementary pair. Red violets in the flowers and one onion, and muted yellows of brass and onions. More blue violet in the shadows behind, balanced by some orange yellows in the sunlit areas.

The trick is to get something exciting into a "boring" still life. Contrast, of textures and objects and of colours, adds that something that makes the eye linger and explore the scene.