For the past three years, the Paradise City Arts Festivals have sponsored a "show-within-a-show" by offering their exhibiting artists an opportunity to submit work to be displayed in an additional exhibit space during the three day art festival. This year the theme is "crEATe: Food as Artistic Inspiration". Works in all media will be displayed in a designated area, anything from dinnerware, serving platters, dining tables, boards, bowls... to sculpture and wall art both abstract and representational, as long as it relates to food or eating. The exhibit is part of the region wide celebration Table for 10: The Art, History and Science of Food, organized by 10 local museums affiliated with the Five Colleges of the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts.
I decided to participate with both encaustic and watercolor works, although the idea of painting an encaustic still life was definitely challenging! I used my photograph taken at last week's local art reception and decided to crop it and then focused on the patterns I saw in the composition rather than a realistic representation of the actual food. I was also intrigued with the color triad - greens, yellowish whites, to reds.
"Reception Time!", 10 x 10, encaustic
photograph
My other work, (and it does require some imagination to make the connection), is the sugar cane painting I did when I was in Louisiana two weeks ago.
"Sugar Cane", 32 x 26, watercolor and ink
All artists exhibiting at Paradise City will be allowed to exhibit in "crEATe" if they choose to participate and I think it will be interesting to see how the food theme is interpreted.
I love the abstract compositional elements of "Reception Time". I didn't recognize it for what it was originally, but instead thought it might be a rock garden or a stone path thru a garden. What's cool is, it didn't matter. It's a fine piece of art with a cool composition and great colors. I hope these and your other works are well received at the upcoming show.
ReplyDelete-Don
I love 'em both Robin. I especially like the texture on "Reception Time". Did you add elements as collage or is that all done with wax?
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of this show! it's so interesting to see your encaustic interpretation of the photo. It's such a contrast with the transparency of the watercolor. I hope it's a successful show for you!
ReplyDeleteDon, there was something about the cheese slices that took me on a journey as I was painting with the wax.. then I stopped trying to paint cheese! It was so much fun not caring about the end result and I am glad you think the composition works.
ReplyDeleteNancy, painting with wax is not like any other medium I know, and it is almost like sculpture because the wax has dimensionality if you want it to. I did transfer the photo image into the wax medium before I started using the pigmented wax, but I did not add any other collage elements.
Deborah, if you ever want to travel to Western Massachusetts, the Paradise City shows are always well attended and worth the booth fee. Artist info is available in the link I posted, on their website above.