Interior Motives

Happy Tuesday everyone! I've always admired artists who paint beautiful buildings and interior spaces (Hopper is one of my favorite painters).  And, I'm a bit of a "foodie" and so I particularly love restaurant, cafe, and food paintings. 

I'm not as good as I should be about taking my sketchbook or camera with me when I'm out an about. Painting a restaurant interior is on my "to do" for 2010.  So, about a week ago, while I was enjoying a delicious wood-fired pizza margherita and refreshing goat cheese & pear salad (OK, I'm hungry now) at a new restaurant, I stopped to take a few quick shots with my iPhone  for reference back in the studio.

Since I was planning to do an abstracted version of the scene anyway the photos were perfectly suitable. This is a study for a larger piece and I can tell I'm going to have to fix a few things already (the color key is clearly off), but I think it has some potential with the shapes, patterns, etc.

If you want to see some simply amazing restaurant paintings, check out Quang Ho's kitchen paintings which were part of his solo show at local Gallery 1261. 

Also, for those of you who love figure painting, I finally received a painting book I've wanted for several years, Art Students League of New York teacher Mary Beth McKenzie's Painterly Approach.  I think it's out of print, but not too hard to find used. I love her self-portraits and I can't wait to try a an oil monotype painting.  Am sure I'll be posting more on this book as I have time to read it in-depth.