Feasting on Art

Adorning the cloaks and garments of royalty, the colour purple was often called imperial purple due to the close association. The word purple is a derivative of the original Greek porphura, the name of the Tyrian purple dye of antiquity extracted from a spiny snail. The pigment was extremely expensive to produce and only the very wealthy could afford clothes dyed the colour of grapes and plums. As a secondary colour, purple is wedged between red and blue on the colour wheel. The tones leaning towards the blue side of the spectrum were desired due to their association with the rare blue pigment favoured by artists and craftsmen.

Benjamin Roberts, Still life of plums with a cabbage white, 1862
oil on board, 16 x 21.5 cm, Private collection

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I have been anxiously waiting for the arrival of stone fruit season. Living on the coast, the cool bite to the air with the approach of autumn is more pronounced due to the sea breeze. After an unprecedented, balmy heat wave two weeks ago, the temperature dropped from 44 to 22° C in one week. Along with the rush of cold air, I procured a sudden appetite for plums and devised a plan to stretch out my fruit supply to remedy the high produce prices as a result of the recent flooding. Luckily I caught the beginning of stone fruit season when I was in Michigan late last summer and I got my fill of sweet desserts. This version of applesauce made with the addition of plums tastes just as lovely as it looks. Mix with a bowl of muesli and Greek yogurt and top with a handful of toasted walnuts.

24 days until the Feasting on Art Recipe Contest deadline and the first entry is already in. Be sure to get your submissions started!

Théo van Rysselberghe, Still Life with Plums, 1926
oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, Private collection

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I read the essay Borderland by M.F.K. Fisher on a sunny afternoon during a fleeting hour of leisure. The title gave no hint to the topic of the essay, yet within the first few sentences, the words began to resonate. Speaking of the simple pleasures of food, the methodological preparation of the tangerines reveals that what we choose to eat is uniquely personal. The essay remained knocking around the back of my mind and was instantly recalled, due to what will become obvious reasons, upon spotting Still Life with Wrapped Tangerines by William Joseph McCloskey. M.F.K. Fisher’s writing is so evocative, the quiet moment and uncomplicated enjoyment of a preferred treat cannot be more eloquently related than through an abridged version of her Borderland essay.

“In the morning, in the soft sultry chamber, sit in the window peeling tangerines, three or four. Peel them gently; do not bruise them…separate each plump little pregnant crescent…Take yesterday’s paper (when we were in Strasbourg L’Ami du Peuple was the best, because when it got hot the ink stayed on it) and spread it on the radiator…After you have put the pieces of tangerine on the paper on the hot radiator, it is best to forget about them…On the radiator the sections of tangerines have grown even plumper, hot and full. You carry them to the window, pull it open, and leave them for a few minutes on the packed snow on the sill. They are ready…I cannot tell you why they are so magical. Perhaps it is that little shell, thin as one layer of enamel on a Chinese bowl, that crackles so tinily, so ultimately under your teeth. Or the rush of cold pulp just after it. Or the perfume. I cannot tell.”

M.F.K. Fisher, Borderland

William Joseph McCloskey, Still Life with Wrapped Tangerines, 1889
oil on canvas, 25.4 x 35.56 cm, Private collection

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I am honored and excited to be included on the Design*Sponge website as part of the ‘In the kitchen with…’ series. I had several recipe ideas, bookmarked and filed away for a very special post, and was delighted when my recipe for a pear tart with whiskey cream was selected as it was inspired by one of my favorite still life artists. Hopefully the short description I sent with the recipe will tempt you to visit the Design*Sponge page to take a look at the pear tart with whiskey cream.

Combining the ingredients in Tom Wesselmann’s ‘Still Life #2′ was a natural
marriage, the dark molasses flavours of the whiskey compliment the subtle
sweetness of the pear with the toasty hints in the liquor mirrored in the toasted
hazelnuts of the crust. Cinnamon and ginger continue the warming flavour
palette and provides a sharp-spiciness to the tart – the perfect foil to the cooling
whiskey cream, speckled with vanilla seeds.

I would like to welcome all of the new readers arriving from Design*Sponge. I hope you take a bit of time and explore the site. You can find the entire listing of recipes here and if you are curious about the type of art you can find among the pages of this blog, then head on over to the art index and click on the images that catch your eye.

Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #2, 1962
oil and collage on board, 121.9 x 122.2 cm, Norton Simon Museum

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The colour orange has always been one of warning used for it’s eye-catching qualities to delineate danger. The pigment was produced through a difficult process of grinding down madder, the pink root of a small bush. Madder is often used to make ‘rose madder genuine’ watercolor paint but when used as a dye, a rich shade of orange-red will emerge when a bit of alum is added to the bath (1). The dependence on the natural madder pigment did not end until 1869 when the specific chemical that causes the red-orange coloration was replicated in a formula. Over the past 30 years there has been a small revival within the industry to relearn the techniques associated with natural dye production.

Margaret Preston, Still life: fruit (Amhem Land motif), 1941
oil on canvas, 43 x 53.3 cm, National Gallery of Australia

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