Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 8" x 10"Alice Thompson's Calypso Moon Artist Challenge this month has us painting delicious food that is bad for us. She was very specific that it not be healthy food. Beyond that, the world was our oyster. To that end, I choose lobster with drawn butter. Without chemicals my cholesterol would be sky high and I probably should stay away from anything drenched in butter, but I can't help myself. My doctor gave me a choice a few years ago. He said "We can do this with diet and exercise or I can write you a prescription". Tough choice - Duh! Gooey desserts have never held much fascination for me. I grew up with a diabetic mother and two diabetic sisters and sugar-free jello was often the Dessert du Jour in our house. I never got use to eating sweets. Oh, I'll indulge in a hot fudge sundae now and then but I would really rather have a nice hunk of Roquefort than a piece of cake any day. Besides, lobsters are as much fun to paint as they are to eat. How we suffer for our art!
19 comments:
That glistening lobster makes me want to jump it... crack the shell and dipped away....
and reminds me we should dine together soon!!
Sounds good to me. Have you recovered from your European sojourn?
My mouth is watering. Love lobster! Nice!
Thanks, Lori. I'm a big fan of your work.
My eyes zoom in and begin by meeting your lobster's eye and then follows your graceful well placed antennae. From here I come back down and wrap around the mystic pool of butter. Now my eye is drawn to the silver metal cracker and naturally goes to the tip of his tail before sliding down the lobster's back and landing on his gigantic front claw. I then circle the dynamic slanted plate counterclockwise and after a full circle go back to the eye. I like the repeat of the circular pattern in 5 places and how you balanced your black abstractly. Your composition is more than unique and very pleasing to the eyes.
As a food critic I must first confess I've never eaten lobster but I can hear that outer shell about to be cracked and the warm butter looks very inviting.
delicious! And the lobster looks pretty good, too!
Impressive, elegant, and stunning, Mark!
Lobsters are amazing. Where else in the universe is there such a convergence of color, form and flavor? I marvel at your attentive and completely successful rendering of surfaces of all sorts. I wish I could see the butter better.
Mark, thank your for your kind words on my plate of donuts. I am a rank amateur with oil paints, but the chocolate frosting looked to good not to try.
When I saw your painting of the lobster, politely offering his own bowl of melted butter, I knew I was out of my depth. The way the shapes echo one another is wonderful, the black bowl echoing the rounded shape of the plate, the metal cracker (is that what it’s called?) suggesting the shapes of the claws. I’m so impressed with how you have rendered all the hard and reflective surfaces, organic, glass, metallic. THe color choices help unify the image as well, basically just black and white and warm shades of red, orange and yellow. A classy painting of a classic favorite meal. Kudos to you!
I gotta say, just looking at lobsters and any such crustacea, ca-REEPS me out, but this is a WONDERFUL painting! The composition is masterful. It almost seems like an abstract of black and white and red-orange forms and at the same time, a realistic still life. I don't want to sound like a pretentious gas-bag, but I love the energy in this painting!
I decided a long time ago, that is the only way to eat lobster - with butter to dip into. I love how you made the lobster look like he was offering you the butter bowl! Great!
You are a man after my own heart! I love steamed lobster and insist on cracking it myself! Where's the lemon? I love butter and lemon personally. This definitely belongs in my I love to eat but it's bad for me category because I keep eating it though I got food poisoning twice. I still eat it but I just don't order it at Red Lobster LOL The way you colored the lobster is most appealing and he healthy look you gave it makes a true lobster lover salivate good job!
Just beautiful! Was it as fun to eat as to paint?
Thanks for the wonderful comments, everyone! I just got back from Boston and am full of inspiration. I ate more "food that was bad for me" in the last three days than I normally eat in a month. "Craigie on Main", "Scupp's on the Harbor", Neptune Oyster House", "Gibbet Hill Farm" and Barbara Lynch's new restaurant - "Menton" elevated my culinary experience and I dare say, my cholesterol, to dizzying new heights.
Yummilicious in every way. The rich red of the cooked lobster shell is so attractive, and the thought of dipping the tender lobster into the melted butter...
Ah Mark.. to tell you the truth , I was kinda feeling sad that I wasn't right next to you on the challenge because it meant I wouldn't get a comment... but YES!
A Heroic Adventure! (Snicker and snort.. too funny!)
Thank you!
Yay now I can watch All the Fellini films looking for the significance of jelly....
The metal crackers really look like metal. I really don't know how you do it. Any tips for a newbie artist?
Paula, The eye sees but the hand executes. Art is a seeing and feeling process. If you can perceive how light reflects off an object and can blend paint in the proper hues, the rest is easy. I know that may sound like a curt answer, but it really is as simple as that as far as the illusion is concerned.
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