The art of culinary paintings

by Tissa Hewavitarane

When you are choosing a culinary still life subject, the first thing to remember is that you don't necessarily need a huge variety of objects. But if you want to make the most of the textures, you need some contrast.

A bowl of mixed fruits, such as apples, oranges, mangoes or grapes would provide a variety of textures. Also try to choose objects to paint that really excite you and challenge in terms of technique.

Fine paintings can be made from very simple subjects such as one or two apples on a rough wooden table. Don't decide to draw or paint something just because it is there. Go to the supermarket or a grocer and have a look round for inspiration.

The less familiar you are with the subject the more closely you will have to look at it and consider the best way of tackling the textures.

In the past, vegetables were less popular than fruit as still life subjects, perhaps because they do not appeal to the taste buds in the same way.

Nowadays, however, more and more artists are discovering their possibilities and if you look at the range of textures, colours and shapes, you can see why.

A few examples are the thin-skinned subtly coloured onions, the delightfully crinkly savoy cabbage and green and black pepper. Some of the best advice I was ever given about still life was to study the range of food and objects on a table during or after a meal.

Whether it is a boiled egg and slices of toast or fruits, the range of subjects seemed endless.

The rather haphazard arrangement of the food and other objects often suggested interesting and natural-looking compositions. In general a still life should not look too “posed”.

For the beginner it is always best to start off with a limited number of objects perhaps no more than five or six and to arrange them in a simple composition.

In choosing the objects for the painting pay special attention to the contrast and balance of different textures.

Media and methods

Although many textures of fruit, vegetables and food can be rendered equally effective in a number of media, it is worthwhile to consider their relative strengths and weaknesses by trying out several different ones. Pencil and coloured pencil drawing fruit and vegetables can be an excellent introduction to the idea of representing texture.

The wide range of different levels, in particular testing your ability to adopt your drawing style to suit the subjects. The pencil is one of the most versatile of all drawing implements, offering an almost infinite range of marks and effects which will suit most approaches and styles.

If you want to explore the more suggestive possibilities of pencil, don't sharpen it all the time, experiment with a worn rounded soft-leaded pencil or even a charcoal stick to broaden your range. For those who find it difficult to draw fruit and culinary subjects in monochrome coloured pencils can be an exciting alternative.

They can be used in similar ways to the pencil but are also capable of some marvellous colour effects. To get the most out of them be sure to use paper with a slight grain so that you can build the drawing. If the paper is hard and smooth, the colours will take depth and the result will look rather thin.

Pastel

Soft pastel is a wonderfully sympathetic medium for drawing soft skin fruit such as peaches or apricots. The vivid colours and opaque, matt surface perfectly recreate those of the subject. The dry, crumbly nature of pastels also make them highly suited for rendering food which have a similar texture, such as cakes bread and biscuits.

One thing to remember about pastels, however, is that the effects you achieve depends very much on how you use them.Blending colours together with a finger, a piece of cotton wool, or a special implement called a ‘torch’ on (a very tight roll of paper with a point at one end) will produce a such an effect, with colours and tones merging together almost imperceptibly.This technique is well suited to smooth objects with matt or shiny surfaces such as eggs. You do not have to stick to one method throughout. You can also let the paper help you describe texture. Pastels can be done on white paper, but coloured surfaces are normally used because it is difficult to cover the surface completely and specks of white showing through the pastel marks tend to directract from the picture. Pastel can be used to convey detailed and complex textures and colourings.

Working with oil

Oil paint is such a versatile medium, with the possibility of rendering so many textures in such variety of ways, that is almost impossible to choose any one technique over another as particularly suitable for culinary subjects. However, a general rule is to try to use the paint so that its physical nature has some affinity with that of the subject. You cannot do this with either watercolour or pastels, which have their own uncompromising natures, but oil paints are endlessly adaptable - they can be used thin and semi-transparent, with almost invisible brush marks of thick and oily brush strokes.

Tips to remember

* When painting in pastels or oils keep your highlights and darkest shadows to the end.

* A sharp and well-defined highlight indicates a smooth surface, a soft and diffused light shows a rough or soft surface.

* Do not be afraid to mix the media. If you are working with colour and cannot capture the soft bloom on fruit try a touch of pastel on top.