Art Journal

The "Food for Thought" exhibit put on by the BAA in Boulder will go up on Wednesday with the official opening on Saturday afternoon December 4 from 1PM to 4 PM. The theme for the show is food-based. Each member artist can submit one large piece and one 8 x 8 on the idea of food. Below are the pieces that I'll be entering at the beginning of December. Bus Stop Gallery, 4895 North Broadway, Boulder CO.

 This larger painting is a view of the kitchen in the Boulder  County Open Space farmhouse on Hw 66 in Longmont. I was looking at the website about Emil Carlsen, a painter noted for his still life paintings from the early 20th century. I was able to visit the website only once and since then it appears to be broken so the link may not work.

Carlsen recommended using a certain palette for still life paintings which included the following colors: white, yellow ocher, something called "light red", Venetian red, raw sienna, burnt sienna, raw umber, and something called "permanent blue". The "light red"(Holbein) that I found is a type of red oxide. The "permanent blue" (Grumbacher) that I found turned out to be ultramarine blue. Of course, there's no way of knowing if these colors with the same name are actually the same pigments as the ones he used. Except for the blue, it's a very earth-color sort of palette. No bright oranges or greens with this palette. I decided to try using his colors since this is an old-time kitchen in order to give the painting an old time look. I'm glad my kitchen is a little more modern than this one.

Organic, 20 x 16

For the small painting I got a set of desserts at Whole Foods to use as models. We ate these after I painted them, and while they looked enticing they turned out to be all show and no taste. Except for the chocolate one in the upper right - that one tasted great. They were fun to paint though.

Anticipation, 8 x 8.