Would you like to see the dessert menu?

           1. What did I paint?

          2. Why did I paint it?

          3. Did I achieve what I intended?

What did I paint? For a long time, I have wanted to do some food paintings. I was first thinking of doing a hamburger and fries, but didn't have a good, original photo to use as a reference. (Note on that: I have decided to use only photos I have taken or photos that are in the public domain. I am guessing there are some copyright issues around the portraits I have done but hopefully the Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley estates will not be taking me to court before I get a piece in The Met.) I came across two good dessert photos on my phone and went for it. Here are my first two dessert paintings. 

Bread Pudding, Oil on 10x8 Wood Panel

Raspberry Cake, Oil on 10x8 Wood Panel

 

Why did I paint these? One big reason is that I wanted to do something quick, and I managed to do these in three days from start to finish. Not sure how many hours it took, but I am thinking around three hours each. With my show coming up in two weeks, on October 21st, I wanted to have a few more paintings to display. I was also considering these will be reasonably priced. I think selling the 24x24 portraits will be tough unless someone absolutely falls in love with them. I can't expect someone to drop $750 during my show when they just came by to see what kind of a fool I am making of myself. But they might drop $175 on a raspberry cake painting.

When bankers get together for dinner, they discuss Art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss money.

- Oscar Wilde

Did I achieve what I intended? Yes and no. I wanted to stress the technique of loading my brush and putting down the paint--no reworking once I put the paint down. I want the individual brush strokes to be visible. Somehow, when the brush strokes are visible, and there is limited, highly intentional mixing of colors on the canvas, things seem more energetic, painterly as they call it. I have a bad habit of going back over things which muddies the colors and makes things look kind of bland, weak. I have a note on my easel that says: STOP STROKING! I made progress, but there is still work to be done. I guess that is one of the attractions of painting-- it's never perfect but you can get a sense of progress from painting to painting.

I am now working on a cheesecake painting so watch for that over the next few days. I am going to call this my Dessert Trilogy. 

Keep Working!