Cheesecake at Cafe Lalo on W 83rd St.

What did I paint? For my third dessert painting, I selected this slice of cheesecake I had in NYC on October 25, 2012, at Cafe Lalo on W 83rd Street in NYC. (Note: In my Facebook post I said it was the Hungarian Pastry Shop, but that was not correct. In looking at the date of the photo, it had to be Cafe Lalo. I also looked at the dishes they have at Cafe Lalo, and they matched my photo. I went to the Hungarian Pastry Shop much later.) This is a painting of a slice of cheesecake with blueberries piled on top. It also includes a creamer in the background which added some more interest. 

Cafe Lalo at 201 W 83rd St.

The real stars of the painting are the blueberries. When I zoomed in on the photo, I saw all these additional colors particularly those greens that are just barely visible. The colors went from almost black to a hint of red which you can see on some of the blueberries. It seems so simple in the photo, but once you start to spot the individual blueberries you have to deal with the shadows and the highlights and make sure the positioning makes sense as in this blueberry is in front of that one and this part is a shadow of that one, etc.

The focus of this is definitely the blueberries with everything else just being a support, kind of like a portrait. In the end, it all has to work together so that nothing feels out of place. It has to be cohesive across all the details. Painting is odd in that it's a measure of skill and taste. You have to be able to look at something and see when a color is off, when a detail is too much or too little, it all has to work together. As an example of aesthetic judgement, the original photo has a yellow plate, but there would have been way too much yellow, so I made it a white plate so the cheesecake would stand out more. 

Why did I paint it? Since I am working to do five dessert paintings this is number three. I thought it was a good representation of dessert and is based upon a photo I took 11 years ago. 

Did I achieve what I intended? I am very happy with the blueberries and feel I did the best I could. As with all paintings I have done, there is a point a point when doing more takes away from the painting. It gets worse with every brushstroke. It's like a graph at some point the line turns down. 

Keep Working!