Food in Art has been around since at least the Ancient Romans, who believed the images of fruits painted on tombs became real in the afterlife, thus sending snacks along with the dead. To the glistening tabletop catalogues of the 16th century Dutch, to Cezanne’s tumbling peaches which pointed the way to Cubist interpretations of bread and fruit, no culture has ever tired of painted interpretations of what we eat.
The Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA , owned and operated by Cape Anners Dawn Southworth and Dana Salvo, (and recipient of a 2011 Best of Boston Award) will offer regular guest posts here featuring their gallery artists doing the same, beginning here with what I think of as the “Mannerist” vegetables of Janet Rickus.
Janet Rickus is meticulous in her approach to the still life compositions she renders in oil on canvas and panel. Mostly self-taught, Rickus has applied her deft hand to painting the forms of fruits, vegetables, vessels, and linens arranged on shelves for over a decade. She does not alter the shapes, sizes, or tones of the objects before her in the studio, choosing rather to accurately capture their natural permutations. Carefully composed according to form and color, the objects assume personalities that convey a study of personal relationships and attitudes. The stilled objects become animated, turning toward and seeming to gaze at one another, instilling the work with a unique and contemporary take on the history of the still life.
Rickus received the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant in Painting in 2006. Her work has been shown in galleries across the northeast, including Hoorn-Ashby in New York, and was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA in 2001. Rickus lives and works in Great Barrington, MA.
For more information on Janet:
Click HERE to read about Janet Rickus: Selected Works at the Springfield Art Museum
Click HERE to see Janet Rickus, recipient of the prestigious Painting Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council
Click HERE to read about Janet Rickus in the E-zine Artodyssey
Click HERE to read about Janet Rickus in BerkShares, Inc.
Click HERE to read about Janet Rickus in the Sciene Musings Blog
Bon Apetit-
Dana
Dana Salvo
Clark Gallery
145 Lincoln Road
Lincoln, MA 01773
Tel: 781-259-8303
In honor of the first Art and food blog, here is a recipe from Claude Monet’s Kitchen at Giverny:
Monet’s Tea Cream
Preheat oven to 350.
Brew 6 spoonfuls of Ceylon and green tea mixed in 4 cups of boiling milk sweetened with 1 1/4 cups of sugar. Stir it to melt the sugar, let it cool down with a lid. When the milk is almost cold, add 6 beaten yolks. Whip then sieve it. Pour into custard cups. Place cups in a baking pan, and fill with water 1/2 up the sides of the cups.
Bake for 30 minutes or until set.
