Food & Product Compositions

Following on from the composition blog of 13th January, using food items for a composition, an email popped into my inbox this morning from Artists and Illustrators, giving an amazing example of how common food items can be turned into fabulous and profitable art.  Rodney Kingston - Kitchen Cupboard Bits and Bobs is an acrylic original retailing for a respectable £400. The artist notes that the work is painted from life, which in real terms means he selected a few select objects from out of the cupboard, to create a super, professional composition. You can look at more of Robert's work here : 

Visit Rodney Kingston's Artist & Illustrator Page

©Rodney Kingston : Kitchen Cupboard Bits & Pieces
Acrylic 30cm x 25cm high

So how much mileage can be gained from using household objects and food packaging?  One only has to think of Andy Warhol's work to appreciate the beauty of simplicity. Both exploiting and embracing consumerism, his 'Campbell's Soup 1', is instantly recognisable for what it is, and who painted it.  Along with the artist's  questioning, demanding, 'Well,  what, after all, is art?'  

 Campbells Soup 1 © Andy Warhol 1968

Art evokes feeling, emotion, perhaps memories. Art moves us, often in an unexpected way. 

We can all relate to product and food. Each of us has to eat.  We can all relate to the tomato sauce clinging to the bottom of the bottle, defiant to all shaking and thudding of the bottom to coax the life partner of the humble chip to slither up the neck of the bottle, blobbing out  on to the plate.     Just as most of us of a certain age, have fond memories of Campbell's Tomato Soup.  For me, it was always served in a mug, steaming hot and generously sprinkled with pepper.  So for me,   Warhol's work instantly starts an internal video of shared soups with folk no longer around, in an era that for me, entering my teenage years, overflowing with memories of very happy times.

Going back to Rodney Kingston's work, he has carefully selected items that would possibly appeal to all age groups.   Coca Cola, Oxos, Golden Syrup, Marmite, and of course, Heinz Tomato Ketchup.   Instantly recognisable to most of us.  Each product concealing a personal trigger for most of us..   

The ketchup..  Most of us prefer the glass bottle to the plastic version, as we grew up with the glass Marmite jar, rather than the plastic squeezy one.  The Oxos are timeless, as are the tin of Golden Syrup and Coca Cola bottles.    

The subliminal messages in Rodney's work are 'authenticity' & 'originality'.  Had Rodney chosen say, a supermarket brand, or modern plastic packaging, the work wouldn't have the same impact.  It wouldn't trigger off memories of our first Coke,  or the taste of a mug of Oxo on a cold day, or simply memories of the staple items found living on the formica kitchen table of the 1960's.

Food and product paintings sell.  One word sums up the unique selling point of the 'Food' genre.  Comfort.     Just gazing at a painting of toast on the end of a toasting fork will evoke smells, tastes, social times, home, holidays, in fact, any random memory that involves toast.  Even writing this, as I write I am smelling toast.  Thus is the power of food.  Don't underestimate it! 

The Fruit Bowl © Kate Lomax All Rights Reserved

My own painting, 'The Fruit Bowl', was painted after I went to the fruit bowl to select some fruit to accompany my lunch.  I placed the pear and the satsuma beside the bowl and went to the kitchen to fetch a plate.  When I returned, the light was catching the bowl in such a way, that I had to paint it. So I did.  Whenever I look at the painting, I am reminded of that day, the bowl that I purchased from a charity shop with my Grandson, and the pear that  became over ripe waiting for me to finish the work!  

Most people remember meals, foods, and social events with fondness.  Perhaps think of your own foodie memories and try and recreate your memory in a painting this weekend.  Or, rifle through your store cupboard for staple brands that have been around for years, or perhaps a wok and some Chinese spices and herbs.   Don't dismiss the food genre as being meaningless to anyone but yourself.  Perhaps Google food paintings and do your own research as you roll through the images to see how many switches they flick within you!  

Happy painting! 

   

The Storm - The Back Story

The Storm © Kate Lomax 2018

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Some moments in life, pass you by and a week later, it has faded into  a distant memory, a couple of weeks later, that precious moment has  disappeared into the ether.

Other moments, make such a lasting impression, that you can never quite disengage from.  You can never unfeel it, or unsee it.  

That is how it was when I visited Boscastle on the north coast of  Cornwall, on route to Tintagel.  The weather had been so unkind, we had driven through thick fog, torrential rain, sunshine, and storms. Undeterred from enjoying our lovely Cornish holiday, we chose to stop off at Boscastle, the scene of a devastating flash flood in 2004.  I watched the river running at a pace, given the rainfall on that particular day.  As it gathered speed and force, I recalled the footage from 2004.  I have never completely left the memory of standing on the pathway, imagining the torrents of water ravaging the village as it pulverised anything in it's path.  

From where I live on the Solent, on the south coast of England, I can look along the coastline, and often see storms raging over the New Forest, Dorset and Southampton to the west of our coastline.   The colours in the sky as the storms  hit landfall from the ocean are amazing, particularly at dawn or sunset. They are always accentuated by the position of any sun, which could be shining in another part of the solent.  

It is these two events that I have combined here.  To begin, I worked wet into wet, dropping background colours onto wet paper, allowing the colours to bleed together and then blotting with kitchen paper before  I ended up with mud.  This I repeated  twice more, and placed the lightening storm whilst the paint was wet. On the third wash, I guided the colour to key positions on the landscape, this time, allowing the watercolour to dry naturally overnight.

Working with bleeds takes patience, nerve, and quick reflexes to know when to blot, so make sure you are not going to be distracted while working wet in wet. 

The next morning, I sprayed the outside edges of the work and dropped a blue / black pigment onto the wet paper and a cad and lemon yellow loose mix into the gaps between the edge and the main body, allowing the paint again to merge naturally.  I also worked on the storm clouds and lightening bolts, until they were ready for highlights and shadows. 

The next job was to decide on my final geography, which wasn't that far removed from what I had created the night before.  I just needed to enhance the bridge a little, with a touch of highlighting, and to drop shadows in along the edge of the lightening bolts and along and underneath the foam wash created by the torrent.  

I left the work to dry for the afternoon, allowing the colours to gently continue bleeding until the work dried naturally.  

Remember when working with watercolour, that if saturated, the paper stays damp well after the surface has dried, therefore expect subtle colour changes as the hues continue to merge.  This is one of the reasons that I really don't like to use a hairdryer to assist drying.   The surface heats, and dries the fibres of the paper in an unnatural order, resulting in warping and overdrying, which can lead to surface flaking.  

When working in wet, water based mediums,  try and keep everything as natural as possible.  Even the water.  I fill up from my water filter jug, since I live in a hard water area.  Allowing wet in wet work to dry overnight will give you great results, allowing you to enhance any detail safely the next day when the work is bone dry.   For final enhancing, you can use a water based calligraphy ink.  These are available in many colours.  Steer away from acrylic inks, as these are opaque, and will blot out all of your gorgeous blends and bleeds.   Calligraphy ink, although strongly pigmented, works well with watercolour, and can even be mixed to create some exciting colours.  The important thing with watercolour is not to be afraid of it.  Mix and merge your colours in an experimental session.  Get to know your box of tricks and work with your new found friends with a smile.

Have fun!

The Storm.  Artwork & Explanatory © Kate Lomax 2018 All Rights Reserved

Composition - Where to begin....

My lovely Warsash class restarted this week after the Christmas and New Year break.  This term, we are focused on the core disciplines of painting, starting with the blank canvas.  After you are done staring at it trying to figure what to paint, you have conquered the hardest part of any artwork which is getting started.  The next, and most complex task in any artwork, is the consideration of composition.   So, for the purpose of the class practical demonstration, I loaded on to a small table, 2 litres of BOB Milk, Azera coffee, a tin of biscuits, sugar cubes, a lemon drizzle cake, a new wave teaspoon , and of course tea bags, to which I added some pretty napkins and a cake slice. 

Yep, the contents of our trusty tea break bag! 

 So, using these items, each class member took a turn in arranging a composition for an imaginary painting, including naming the proposed work.  The rules were simple: You may take away any item (s) that were not needed, you could do anything with any object, as in open a packet or box perhaps.  It was very interesting to see how each painter approached the exercise.    

The first to rise to the challenge, Steve,  arranged the items in a row, with the impressive intention of creating an Andy Warhol type Pop Art scene.  Many combinations followed, each painter with their own idea of how the scene should look.  Each arrangement offered a new perspective to the previous. The message in the exercise was this: An artist never accepts what they see in the first person.  They should look beyond the packaging, look beyond the 2d photograph.  Rearrange things, use your artistic licence to create your individual artistic identity. 

Henri Matisse acknowledged that our mood affects the way we perceive our world, including the humble elements that we may have gathered for our planned artwork, which is why, once you have the concept and the composition in your mind, you should really wait a day or two before introducing mark maker to paper or canvas.  If you mood is perhaps tetchy, and you are trying to paint some delicate sweet peas, you will go to war with your work.  Getting into the right mindset is vital.

When considering composition, it is vital that you take your viewer on a journey.  Even if you are painting a still life of a vase holding a single bloom, you would vary the light in the background, adding perhaps a little texture here and there, to guide the viewer from the visual entry point right around the canvas. In the video below, Stefan Baumann explains the considerations and the application of placement skills.

Your next consideration is sketching.  Try always to sketch with charcoal.  From the lightest of grey for watercolours, to a more appropriate grey tone for acrylics and oils. Charcoal turns into a great ink when you introduce a damp brush to it.  So you sketch your outlines very openly, adding the details using a damp brush.  The addition of moisture also sets the charcoal, ready for the next step.

I shall cover the subject of charcoal sketching with water next week.  In the meantime, here is something real fun to try! 

Have fun! 

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The Orange Tree - Watercolour

The Orange Tree © Kate Lomax 2018 All Rights Reserved

The Orange Tree, is, unusually for me, a watercolour work.   It is really another sketch study, a move on from my sketch of last blog.   

My next step was to think about the elements I had visited in the first sketch and decide which I wanted to adopt for my next step.  I gaze at my fruit trees frequently.  When I am looking at the fruit, waiting for it to ripen, I think about what I am going to do with it.  I always use all of the fruit.  The peel, the zest, the flesh and the juice.  I so wished to convey this in my painting.  It isn't just about fruit, it is about juice, marmalade, candied peel, oranges preserved in brandy, orange blossom oil, among hundreds of by-products that originate from the humble orange.     In any study, we must always consider where the object, in this instance, a tree came to be. 

Key elements decided, I then need to to consider composition, working with a charcoal sketch.

I always use light grey charcoal for sketching.  The charcoal will melt away and merge with your medium once moisture is introduced.  It is a far more paint friendly than pencil. 

When working with watercolour, you must decide how you are going to approach. Wet on wet?  Dry brushing?  A bit of both?  I chose to apply my outlines to dry paper, then gently flood the locked in areas, taking great care not to introduce water to my outlines.  I then allowed the base colours to dry completely before adding more colour very, very carefully.  Building shape and form as I progressed. In normal practice, I would start with the background.  However, with this work, my decision on colour choice, came at the end.   I couldn't decide between yellow or lime green. Only by completing the work in the main, could I confidently make the right choice.  

The reason I chose yellow is quite an elementary one.  Each of the colours featured would be enhanced by the yellow surround.  Lime green may have dumbed down the little green in the painting, and possibly have given the orange the illusion of leaning toward a brown tone.  Whereas the yellow would compliment, lift  and add to the vibrance of the orange and green hues.  The wildcard was the turquoise that was to sit in the upper areas of the tree.  Because of the green tone of turquoise, it would intensify the green in the proposed lime hue.  Had I used french ultramarine instead of turquoise, lime would have worked, both would have complimented the orange.  However, turquoise is always my favourite blue as it works with almost everything, because the pigment is blue/green.  So yellow won the day! 

The yellow background was mixed in two batches.  Very intense, for around the outside edges of the work, and a finer mix for around the tree, which I applied with several brushes in a scrubbing motion to achieve a relaxed and uneven cover.  I opted for this method of application to soften the formality of the tree arrangement, shown here prior to the addition of the colour wash. I could have sprayed moisture on then dropped the water colour pigment into the water for an even more random effect.  However, if you do this, make a good mask from acetate to protect the completed part of your painting.

When composing a water colour painting.  Plan through to the finish line.  Give yourself set options if you are not sure.  I would advise against 'going with the flow', as once you have committed water colour paint to paper, you are more or less stuck either with the colour, or a long drawn out removal process if you decide that the colour choice is wrong. Always use a colour wheel to study your options.  However, I prefer to take my proposed water colour hues and just make your own colour wheel, using the colours that will make up your work.  Tone is vital. One dull tone can kill a painting full of brights.  Even dark colours can be vibrant...  My tree trunk has orange and emerald dropped into it to lift the blander raw  umber of the trunk.   Subtle colour drops will lift dark and dull hues without changing the colour.

The important thing is not to be afraid of water colours.  There is much fun to be had, lots of experimenting to be done, and many sketches to paint in your planning of larger works in your journey as an artist.  Have fun!

The Orange Tree - Preliminary Sketch Of Work In Progress

The Orange Tree - WIP © Kate Lomax 2018

As artists, it is vital that we sketch, or doodle our ideas down.  Preferable in a sketch book, or, as in my case, if you think you can develop your sketch into a fully evolved painting, then work on the surface you prefer.  I have chosen 300 gsm watercolour paper because I move paint, so it needs to be able to take a bit of punishment.

The orange tree in question was gifted to me on New Year's Day.  By my daughter, as a beautiful birthday gift.  When she presented it to me, I heard the story of the journey from the nursery to her home, and then back to mine.  Shedding fruit en route, leaving orange scented debris wherever my daughter and her leafy new companion adventured. It is rather bushy you see. Slightly wider than a house door, definitely wider than a car door. 

As I listened, I smiled admiring the specimen absolutely laden with fruit.  

When I came to explore ideas for a painting, I could imagine my daughter, eyeing all of the potential gifts, and then spotting the abundant tree that she gifted to me.  I doodled away with the paint and realised that I had inadvertently created the look of a girl not unlike my daughter.  My point being is that when you sketch, you have to let your mind wander, and your hands communicate with your vision on an unconscious level.   I am not sure of the scene I have started.  I think it is my daughter visiting the nursery to select the tree.  I have found other images in there also.  An elderly gardener, maybe he cared for the tree prior to it's journey here.  Lavender, in the backdrop.  I guess there would have been many floral gifts on display over Christmas and New Year.  None of these things were in my mind as I painted.  Only the orange tree.

The subconscious is a really powerful tool.  You have to be uber relaxed to access it.  I am sitting here at 2.45 am.  I have been working in beautiful silence, apart from the dog's breathing.   

We all find our perfect time and conditions to access our inner most workings.  That, almost for sure, is when your work and ideas will be at their best.  

Paint those ideas out, or sketch them with charcoal in a sketch book.  The reason you ought to use charcoal is because if you then moisten your brush, it will become like ink and you can fine tune your sketches to look like mono paintings.

Have fun.  Do sketch. Do get lost in your daydreams.  You will, I am sure be impressed with your results! 

The River Rother

The River Rother © Kate Lomax All Rights Reserved

The River Rother runs from Empshott, near Liss, to Peterfield in Hampshire, England, then meandering across the South Downs toward  Stopham Sussex, where it merges with the River Arun.  Petersfield is a popular place for riders and ramblers, particularly the heath and lake, which has influenced the woodland scene in this work. Bridle paths along the river are illustrated by the white horses formed by the surf of the river, in the foreground.  Woodland footpaths and walkways stretch along the 32 miles of the river's scenic  route, nurturing wildlife and marshlands across the South Downs. A little piece of England on your wall. The work is mounted, the exterior dimensions of the mount for a frame, are approximately 14 inches wide x 11 inches  high.  This is a new addition to my collection of originals available to purchase.

The area has a special place in my heart.  I love a good picnic, an eating ritual instilled in me from childhood, when we would set off in the family car, all squished in, Mum, Dad, us three kids, and the dog.   We would either head westward to the New Forest or Dorset Coast, or northward to Petersfield and the South Downs.  Given the choice, it would be northward.  To miles of unspoiled countryside, wide open spaces and some water play in the waterways.  Joyous times indeed.

For those of you that have walked around the lake you will I am sure, immediately summon some heart smiles as you recall the abundant and uber friendly wildlife.  Used to the public visiting and feeding, all manner or critters will come right up, trying to woo the sandwich right out of your hand! Happy days!  

The Lull Before The Storm - Surrealism

The Lull Before The Storm © Kate Lomax 2015 All Rights Reserved

At heart, my natural style of painting is Surrealism.  Not to be confused with Fantasy, Abstract, Abstraction, Manga or any genre that folk sometimes mistake for Surrealism.

Surrealism is identified by the process.  You go to the paper or the canvas with not the slightest idea of what you are going to paint.  The moment you actually think about it, the thought process disqualifies the work as true surrealism.  Surrealism is to paint in a dream like state. How I work with this in watercolour is rather random, but it works for me.   If I am working in oil, I stare at the blank canvas for several days and let the canvas talk to me.  This is also the practice of many fellow artists. Most of us believe that everything has life.  Even a canvas.  It is made from cotton which is, after all, a plant that grew in a field prior to harvest.  It is that energy that an artists wishes to work with, to get the very best result possible.

I like to work with the elements.  Therefore I use a glued on all sides pad of heavyweight paper.  Arches is a good one.  I pop it out in the rain and allow the paper to become damp.  Because of the way rain falls, some drops will be wetter than others. So the paper is unevenly wet.

I then take my watercolour pigment and sprinkle randomly on the paper. I then allow it to dry.  Then, using a damp brush, I work on the multi coloured paper, picking out elements that I can see in my minds eye.   The first element I saw in this work was the swimmer's head.  Viewed from the rear of the head, which is turned slightly to the right, and fills a good part of the paper.  Once I had picked out the detail, the rest of the detail  followed spontaneously and soon I was reliving a then recent experience on the beach, when I was almost caught in a bad storm: 

The Lull Before The Storm - I was walking the dog along our local coastline, and over the New Forest we could see a violent storm approaching. We stood for a moment aghast at the speed it was moving across the Solent, and yet, there was only a gentle breeze. In minutes, the energy changed.

The whole painting is captured within the form of the back of a swimmer, his goggles having come astray in the sudden waves. Find him and everything else is likely to become visible to you... A paddler retreats, a child is still laughing into the sun, unaware of the approaching danger, a water nymph has popped her head up, as has the water sphinx, who peeks out from beneath a wave. The wind God, Boreas, gently exhales, saving his breath for the eye of the storm, which we see just peeking over the hill at the back.  The trees are found on the clifftops at Hill Head, and you will make out the figures of a walker and their dog. The Robin? My Grandmother always said if you saw a robin in times of trouble, everything was going to be just fine, which of course, it was. 

Enjoy.  And perhaps, if you have never tried, have a trial with surrealism.  Guard against analysing your brush strokes or any other part of the painting process.  Let your heart and your subconscious work together to produce something a little different.  Please feel free to post your work on my 'Paint With Kate' page on Facebook www.facebook.com/katelomax

Don't forget to like my page while you are there, and then you will find new blogs and tutorials in your feed, as and when they are published. 

Remember to always have fun with your art and explore new things, new colours and new styles, there could be a surrealist inside of you just screaming to be released!

To purchase 'The Lull Before The Storm' please click the gallery link at the top right of this page.

Thank you for visiting!