Christmas Food Can be Wall Art

I have written Wall Art blogs for many years, highlighting, the artistic, the normal, the unusual, the poignant and the downright wacky. Personally though, I have never viewed or really appreciated food as a subject for this important artistic medium.

Of course, as one develops one’s love of the arts, one cannot escape the appreciation of still life portraits, many of which identify food as the subject matter. Paul Cezanne’s, ‘The Basket of Apples’ is a shining example of his artwork in which he used techniques like two viewpoints which were to change the direction of art. The painting is noted for its unbalanced parts like the titled bottle, inclined basket and the fruits which are about to fall. It was Cezanne who almost single handedly took still life to new heights that it became a popular subject for future artists including Picasso, Matisse, Morandi and Braque.

Most people have seen the Pop Artist Andy Warhol’s iconic, ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’, but have you seen the quirky and whimsical, ‘Reversible Head with Basket of Fruit’, painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo? A Mannerist in the truest sense, Arcimboldo’s work examined the delicate relationship between people and their environments. By the way, Mannerism is a sixteenth century style of art and design characterised by artificiality, elegance and sensuous distortion of the human figure. In the case of Arcimboldo, this interest usually manifested itself in unique portraits of human figures, recreated in edible items (think fruits and vegetables), and usually with a touch of Baroque style. Arcimboldo’s bold and humorous style would earn parity with many contemporary modern expressionist or symbolist artists.

Take a look at these iconic food paintings:

Wayne Thiebaud is one of America’s greatest painters, and certainly its premier painter of food. Even at the age of 99, Thiebaud’s work inspires desire, using a medium as inedible as paint to offer a fantastical, idealised vision of something wholly ordinary. This could be a bakery shelf, cakes and pies, candied apples and lollipops. His painting, ‘Display Cakes’ is a famous example, which portrays a sweet tooth’s paradise.

Thiebaud has just produced his ninth cover for ‘The New Yorker’ magazine, featuring the painting of a turkey that he started in 2009, named ‘Neapolitan Turkey’. Why did the turkey get stuffed?

Thiebaud said.

“Well, I always do things in series. I try to figure out a way to keep a painting going over the course of the years. The process for this one was relatively short. This particular bird, if you remember, is what we talked about as a possibility for Thanksgiving. But the thing about Thanksgiving is that, at day’s end, everybody is stuffed! So I thought the proper thing would be to overstuff the turkey.”

Hence, his title for the front cover of ‘The New Yorker’ is...‘Stuffed’.

Back in the UK the festival of Christmas will soon be upon us. This Christian festival celebrates the birth of their founder, Jesus Christ. Many Christmas traditions have evolved over the centuries, no stronger than, eating, drinking and making merry. Would we consider cooking a Christmas Day meal without roasting a turkey and ensure that it’s ‘stuffed’?

It can be difficult and stressful planning all the families’ Christmas holiday food and drink, let alone buying it. Where does one shop for the best food and drink? What’s the best turkey to buy and where from? What about mince pies, deserts and that bottle of bubbly?

The magazine, ‘Good Housekeeping’ taste testers have been busy sampling over 383 products, from pigs in blankets to show-stopping desserts and champagne, to find the very best food and fizz for you to serve up this year.

Janet Leigh says:

“Led by the Good Housekeeping Institute food testing team, our panel blind-tasted goodies from 51 retailers for this year’s test. For the first time, we saw an increase in the range of brands claiming first place in different categories, with winners including COOK, PAUL, Costa Coffee, Baking Agent and The Fish Society. However, it was high street supermarket Tesco that nabbed the most number one spots, coming first in four out of a whopping 20 categories.”

Sort out your best buys here:

Mmmm, that’s the food and drink sorted, but what about Christmas gifts? We can’t just rely on Santa but you can rely on Brilliant Wall Art!

The team at Brilliant Wall Art have developed an extensive range of contemporary and quality decorative metal wall art and home accessories at the lowest possible prices.

Do you need somewhere to store your Christmas wine? Here are some ideas:

Wine art and accessories. 

I prefer the Vintage stacking crate wine rack bottle holder set of four. This hand-made metal framework is a practical design which allows the individual crates to be stacked. It has an aged, distressed and vintage finish to each crate. More crates can be added as your wine collection grows. Each crate holds four bottles of wine this set holds a total of sixteen bottles. This is ideal for any home, restaurant, bar, hotel or wine lover.

Here are just a sample of the newly arrived Christmas gifts at Brilliant Wall Art:

• Rustic Sail Boat
• Metal Winged Dragon
• Large Daisy Flower Ring
• Silver Bronze Butterflies
• White Birch Tree

Christmas is only a few weeks away, shop online for your Christmas gifts at Brilliant Wall Art.

Please visit one of these markets in the shopping days left before Christmas. Why not personally examine the excellent range of goods that Brilliant Wall Art have for sale? Or you could purchase online and collect from one of our Brilliant Wall Art stalls.

Please visit our market stall at one of these festive events:

• Worcester UpMarket Market every Saturday
• Bewdley Market on the first and third Sunday of the month
• York Christmas Market - 14th November - 22nd December - Outside M&S, Parliament St, York, YO1 8SG
• Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre - 28th November - 1st December - Outside Joules, High Street, Worcester, WR1 2QE
• Stratford Upon Avon Victorian Christmas Fayre - 6th - 8th December - Outside New Look, Bridge Street, CV37 6AE

STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS

Gosh, it’s getting cold out there. You need to stoke up your open fire.

Brilliant Wall Art has a fabulous range of Traditional Fireside Accessories...

Please contact us if you have any questions or queries about our excellent products and services:

Tel: 0121 453 1145

Email: sales@brilliantwallart.co.uk

Website: http://www.brilliantwallart.co.uk/Home.html

- BRILLIANT WALL ART -

Bring out the Artist in You…Your walls are Your Blank Canvas