There's More to Kitchen Art than What's on Your Refrigerator Door

Satsuma With Leaf - 6"x8" oil on canvas panel

What’s hanging on your kitchen walls? We’ve got three paintings in our kitchen at the moment. One is a still life of strawberries, one a cognac bottle with glasses and the other a floral. All of them are painted by my friends, some of whom were my teachers.

---

Dinnah - 10"x10" oil on canvas panel

Does kitchen art have to be food themed? Not necessarily. But fruit and vegetables, as well as dishes and dishcloths, are common items used in still life paintings. I enjoy painting still life in the winter, because I can paint from life without going outside. Painting from life is my favorite way to paint. There’s nothing like transferring what you see directly to paint!

Peppers - 6"x8" oil on treated card

Still life is also a great way to improve one’s painting. I spent some years painting still life subjects several mornings a week. That’s when I really learned how to paint. I used to set up a still life on top of a cooler sitting on the bed in our guest room. Then I set up my plein air box on a tripod next to it, and did my best to complete a painting before I went to work.

Three Satsumas - oil on canvas panel, 6"x12"

I know, I’m a morning person, but there are many artists who’ve done the same thing, painting at night. It’s creating a painting from start to finish, in an hour or two, over and over, that imprints the process on the mind and creates muscle memory.

Breakfast of Melons, Early Strawberries -  each painting is 5"x5" gouache on paper, painted in 2009

And, I'm not knocking refrigerator art. We have lots of that too, pictures of good times with our friends, our son and the grand dogs, and wonderful paintings made by young artists we love. The refrigerator is an excellent bulletin board!