Why Painting is Like Cooking

'In the Mood for Fall'           9x12         pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $165

Don't laugh!  Those of you who know me are aware that I don't cook.  It's not that I don't like to cook. I don't make time to learn. It isn't a priority or a passion.  I love to watch Food Network though. After the workshop this past week I unwound in the hotel room by vegging out to Food Network. Something occurred to me....

Creating a painting is a lot like cooking a meal!

To cook a delicious meal you need to know the basics of cooking and assemble the freshest and best ingredients. You need a recipe or at least a plan for your dish. You need to orchestrate the plan, check on the progress and not overcook it!  It takes a some intuition and confidence to take an ordinary recipe and make it your own. Can you see the parallels?

Chop Your Way to Success

One of my  favorite Food network programs is Chopped. It is a cooking competition show where the chefs have 30 minutes to create a dish from a basket of mystery ingredients.  I love watching the chefs create under the pressure of the clock. I think it is something we should try as painters for a good exercise.

• Take a photo and piece of paper and set the timer for 30 minutes. 
• Now paint. You have just enough time to formulate a quick plan and then just respond. There is not enough time to overwork the painting. 
• There is a time to slow down in a painting but we also need to learn how to respond intuitively and trust ourselves. This exercise is to help us avoid 'fiddling'.
• This exercise is a good warm up or even cool down after a day of painting.
• If you really want a challenge have someone else choose your subject and a limited palette...you have to make it work!

This is our challenge this week over on my Patreon Page. Join us over on Patreon www.patreon.com/karenmargulis