Food has always had a place at the table; now it finds a home on the wall. Local artists have quite the appetite for food-inspired pieces that’ll leave your mouth watering. Take a look at their work and learn about varying techniques and philosophies. Then indulge in a glass of wine and your favorite dessert.
Carol Enck owes much of her success as a watercolor artist to a bout of foul weather. Although she was a jeweler and ceramics artist for years, and even dabbled in painting, it wasn’t until she got caught in a storm while vacationing up North, that her watercolor painting really took off. When the skies began threatening rain, she ducked into a nearby art gallery to wait out the storm. There, Enck found more than shelter—she found a new outlet to showcase her budding work. The owner of the gallery was so delighted with Enck’s work, that she began requesting pieces for display.
For many years Enck had fun developing new techniques and styles, which varied so greatly, customers assumed the paintings were by different artists. She shared her work in galleries from Grand Marais down to Pepin, Wisconsin, set up booths at local art fairs, started an art crawl in Maple Grove, and created paintings to be used on gift bags for big name companies.
With such a diverse background of painting experience, Enck found many opportunities to incorporate food into her work. Since her daughter owns a local berry farm, strawberries have been the subjects of many paintings in recent years. But Enck’s paintings don’t always start out as a clear portrait of a strawberry. In fact, she enjoys using an abstract background as a foundation, then working the still life in on top. “You might not know it was an abstract at the end,” she says, “but it makes for a livelier painting” overall. Although she appreciates many mediums, she is drawn to watercolor “because it is just so versatile … and you can make more blended colors. With watercolor you can get the fuzziness of a peach or the texture of an orange,” she explains.
To inquire about Enck’s watercolor paintings, contact 763.494.7699.
CJ Longaecker wears many hats: she’s a marketing professional by trade and an artist at heart. It all began when she starting taking classes twelve years ago and fell in love with watercolor. “It just took a hold of me,” she remembers. From there it grew into a serious hobby that has her devoting weekends to playing with different techniques. “It’s the journey [of painting],” Longaecker explains. “As you’re working, something will hit you or the paint will flow into an unexpected area and you can either [panic] or say it’s beautiful and work with it.” Her ability to work with less structure and go where the paint leads is a reflection of her personality. “That’s why I like paint as a medium,” she says. “It magnifies personality and a little window into how you think or feel.”
Food is a fun subject for Longaecker because of its natural qualities such as shades and forms that an artist can play with in endless combination. In fact, it’s not uncommon for Longaecker to devote half a dozen paintings to the same subject portrayed in multiple ways. One of her favorite food paintings is of wine glasses on top of an abstract background, because everyone can associate with it and pull in their own emotions. “[Wine glasses are] so much a part of that emotion of good feelings … everyone knows what a wine glass means,” she explains. Since Longaecker is more suggestive and interpretive in her work, this frees the viewer to add layers of meaning on top of the painting.
Calvin deRuyter doesn’t abide by any watercolor rules when he paints. Where the typical artist would mix paints on a pallet, he mixes his directly on the surface. When most watercolor artists would leave the white of the paper visible, he gets rid of the white as quickly as possible. In a painting by deRuyter, colors are vibrant and strong—and very appetizing. This Maple Grove artist, who usually focuses on landscapes, is brushing up on his fruits and vegetables because Nutritional Weight and Wellness, an educational and counseling organization with a branch in Maple Grove, is featuring his work in an upcoming marketing campaign. They are interested in deRuyter’s luscious images of tomato and avocado in particular, along with eggs, olives and olive oil.
Layers are the secret to deRuyter’s paintings, allowing him to gradually create the look he wants. In fact, the first color on the page is often the last one you would think of. With the tomato, for instance, he starts out with the blue undertones, then adds in the yellow and finally the red. “With water in the brush you can pull blue up and mix it into the yellow” he explains. deRuyter’s sense of color is what gives him some distinction. “When [an artist] looks at things, we can make what people think is ordinary look extraordinary by highlighting colors you might not typically see,” he says.
