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Friday, August 3, 2012

Enough Fruit


Painting in progress. Chocolate Cannoli, day two. Chocolate cannoli
have to be easier to make, then they are to paint.

I imagine Cannoli aren't easy to make, for they certainly aren't easy to paint. I spent the day searching for the mix of the darkest cannoli chocolate with some life in it. I wasn't entirely successful. As I keep working though, the answer will come; it always does.

Pink is the connective color  in this trip tyke.
 Hung on the wall to dry, it looks to me like the piece of chocolate cake in the foreground of the lowest panel may have to be pinker to balance the pink powdered sugar in the left hand corner of the top panel. Pink is the connecting color. I was just feeling out the colors today and the brush work. Naples Yellow is a Godsend--as is this Titan Buff that I bought once on a need for a warmer white than Titanium. I have to order some more paint.

After a few comments yesterday that said these pastry paintings are more commercial than residential, I looked at my kitchen wall decor. I've got my mom's plate collection mounted, my MIL's needle point of a Matisse (where she replaced the white in the picture with beige for God sake. What did Matisse know); and three paintings of mine and one large platter I got from Mexico. My pastries seem right at home and do not tempt me to run out to the bakery to get a piece of torte. I just like the colors and that the painting is uniquely different.

 I have thought of taking that painting down, replacing it with my mom's bagel dish and hanging the three new pastry panels over the three doors like fascia paneling. Might be cool? Certainly would be colorful. If my kitchen was bigger and I had more counter top runs, those acrylic panels would also look great in the back splash area. Practical too. Acrylics are more washable than walls. But I'm a cook. Unlike my clients, I keep a lot of utensils on the counter top. Those would have to go to keep the look simple. Ellis would be thrilled. He is not an advocate of "point of first use."

 Now you see what you started? You asked me, round about, what are you going to do with these? I'm going to finish painting them. Then maybe I'll take them down to Greek Town to the bakery where I took the reference photos and ask them if they're interested? Or I could make a list of possible commercial "homes" for these and send a brochure--also to  interior and kitchen designers. There are marketing possibilities--including over the three doors in my own kitchen. I'd put the three panels together in my dining room if I had one. Ellis and I eat around the large coffee table in the great room  (that will seat eight). And when people come over (which is hardly ever), I'm a buffet hostess. People can eat where ever they like.

Enough Fruit
Give me some vivid color in my kitchen and
something different.

18 comments:

  1. Dear Linda, paint the pastry is more difficult to cook them!
    I think it's harder to paint flowers and fruit.
    The cakes have complex shapes and colors, to render! But you seem to already highly specialized! The last painting, the square is phenomenal! The panels are harmonious with each other(and they may also be reported separately in my opinion).
    I like seeing my things, repeatedly changing their place.
    Things in my house never has a total stability, I like to move them ...
    when they change places, I can "see" again.

    Have nice week end!

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    1. PS:Dear Linda, maybe I have not translated well my thoughts...
      I think that painting these Cannoli is more difficult than to paint the flowers or fruits...

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    2. I KNOW you're right. You can't fudge cannoli:)

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  2. Wow, I am getting fat just looking at these paintings! The detail is beautiful, delicate to each crumb.

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  3. Mission accomplished. This series of posts has ruined my already expansive waist line. Your internal discussion about placement and other issues is one that we aren't qualified to tai about. Just think of the fact you have provided us with inspiration and enjoyment. Keep it going.

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  4. I honestly don't know what to say [other than your panels look fabulous already]. Market to high-end restaurants?

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    1. No, much too flashy. High end usually goes for low keyed decorative art. More Bistro and coffee houses.

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  5. This is all so pretty! I love bakery shop paintings! Someday I want to try one too. In the meantime, I'd like to read more of your advice about warm and cool colors... I'm still unclear about when and how to use each.

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    1. Me too. I paint intuitively for the most part. I start out classical oil paint technique: toned canvas, light drawing in, laying in the darks and establishing the composition. After that I follow my instincts. I don't think warm or cool. I think balance, continuity.

      These three panels are a prototype. As were the three square paintings I did. I was just getting the feel of the subject. Where I'm going to take it. I don't know. But I do love the painting of that subject. It's unencumbered with comparisons to other people's work. It seems "bakery paintings" are of limited interest.

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  6. wow...these are fabulous! they are really fun to see together....and it is fun to see your kitchen decor too. I think your sweet triptych is ammmaazzing

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    1. What else would you do with your mom's plate collection, but hang it in the kitchen? I did have an artist friend who shattered her mom's bone china tea cup, saucers and dessert plates and then put them all together again in the form of a three tiered wedding cake.(She had a Styrofoam substrata). I thought she was brilliant.

      I don't know bout fabulous, but interesting said Peter Sellers.

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  7. I am really looking forward to see these finished. It looks very colorful and tasty. I think that too often the word "commercial" is considered to be a bad word, but I think there must be a balance between being creative and commercial, so much art is done with splendid skill, but are so boring, and I wonder if people really want that on a wall. Off course it is a matter of taste.

    I also love that small painting below the plate, it is loose, colorful, fun and has a great composition.

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    1. I've walked through many living rooms and never noticed any art, yet there were paintings on the wall. I've walked through museum galleries and the same thing. Nothing grabbed me and pulled me to it. I was very thrilled five years ago when I had a party that all the guests got sidetracked by the art hanging on my wall. It's all original. It's mostly LWR's work.

      Commercial art isn't a bad word in my head. For years we made a very good living selling art that had been painted specifically for commerce--landscapes, figurative, florals,still lifes (with fruit), all the stuff we paint. The artists of those painted more than one a day. They painted ten a day or more. They lived primarily in Japan and Italy. The baroque frames came from Mexico. These painters really opened my eyes to how you make a living with art. They painted under pseudonyms. Their professional gallery work was done on their own time and signed with their real names. We had a thousand independent contractors who sold their commercial work. At that time American artists turned their nose up is disdain. Today, they probably still do. American artists can be pretty snobby when it comes to money and art. Art made for money doesn't have heart, but it takes an awful lot of skill to formulate a composition and knock a number of them out in a days or weeks time. We were chastised by art critics for importing it and selling it. Meanwhile a lot of artists who didn't wear rose colored glasses made a respectable living.

      Most art is boring after completed. In order for it not to be, it has to have a vagueness about it that keeps the viewer's attention trying to figure it out(a Mona Lisa smile). My mural is one like that. I have no clue what I was painting, but I knew when I had gone as far as I could go and I just stopped. Unresolved, it breathes.

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  8. It's easier to eat these beauties than to paint them!!! You did a great job on these, Linda..they look wonderful hanging together. Beautifully done!!!

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    1. As much as Ellis hates me putting holes in the wall, I won't be able to stand it till I space them correctly. Between yesterday and today, I thought of how to avoid that. I've been thinking I have to go to the lumber yard for 1" sticks (I'm sure there's a better term for them), which I will cut to size for two of the panels to raise them up. I hope and inch is an excellent guess. I want them to look like a pastry case with the wall in between being the shelves.

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  9. You've done a wonderful job with them, Linda! And all those seemingly same, yet essentially different tints and tones of chocolate and creme... What a pastry-cook(who in my eyes, is an artist too, since he makes my head spin when the pastry is really good or makes people go 'wow' in front of a pastry case) would say, I wonder. Why an apple consider to be art whereas pastry labeled commercial, still wondering. What makes me stop, absolutely freeze, in front of one piece of art and pass by-maybe even haste my pace- another.
    Enjoy your winning against cannolies, chocolate and creme! Warm regards.

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    1. Not quite done yet Konstantina. I'm taking the weekend off to observe. You're right. I don't get it either:fruit, residential; pastries, commercial. Beats me. But I don't mind being alone in this category with Thiebaud:) Hug to your warm regards.

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  10. Love the paintings - love Willie's song. Funny as all get out! Showed it to Jim who became helpless laughing and had me forward it to him

    I enjoyed your dialog with Roger about american artists and snobbery. Agree with you 100%
    Love your blog kiddo, it is the BEST!

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