“The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke” said Jerzy Kosinski. So this time I didn’t want to make an exact image, I wanted to try to let the textures, maybe even a special smell evoke some memories. (Crazy idea, isn’t it? Well I always have an urge to experiment, to push the line further, to try something else.)
If I think about my childhood one of my greatest memories is the smell of my granny’s kitchen after baking a cake. It was so sweet… I’ll never forget it. So my first step was to dry some “sweet” smells for my art, yes you read it good, smells. So I took orange, cinnamon, eucalyptus, bael and mehogni to dry (I had look the last day and night we had high temperature and a lot of sun). I found some old lace in my box and I applied all of them on a turned-around canvas.
As I said I didn’t wanted to have clear images, I wanted some other senses than your eyes to lead, I covered everything with white gesso (this canvas has an amazing smell even after all the layers of paint and ink, oh I used beeswax as glue).
When it dried I was trying my first color combo, I used Lindy’s stamp gang sprays (raspberry lemonade and c’est la vie cerise).
While it was drying I saw the frame – the edge of my shadowbox, so empty, I wanted to have there some texture, so I used modeling paste with Ronda Palazzari’s Moroccan tiles stencil, and I painted my tiles with inka gold yellow for sort of a shine.
Now that pastel pink and blue was getting a bit shining frame, but wanted some more light in the middle and the white seemed now so crying rather naked, so I painted them to orange with inka gold.
Now I had that warm antique feeling as well. I just added my word and some more splatters with acrylic ink. I closed my eyes, feel pity that I can’t post smell for you but it’s amazing, my canvas has a sweet enchanting smell of honey, orange, bael, cinnamon and eucalyptus. And now some details:
I enjoyed painting something different this time, especially working with all those pleasant smells of the past and bring them back to my studio.
I am sharing my canvas with One little word word up #85 evoke and with Paint Party Friday.
Ruth, I tuned right into the smells even before I read your post- your Evoke- stirred memories in me also! Well done my friend! xo
Thanks Jackie xoxo
Great post Ruth, can only imagine how much fun you must have had creating your canvas.
It has turned out beautifully, loving all the different ways you experimented.
Great ArT and inspiration:-) xxx
Thank you xoxo 😉
Glorious and I love the idea of the beeswax adding to the aroma. Fabulous colours too.
Thanks Lisette!
This is absolutely amazing, from using the back of a canvas, the smells (wouldn’t it be great we could smell through our computer, or maybe not for everything :-)) it has a granny feel to it, well done
Thank you Vicky, yeah the limitation of the technology is a bit of a trouble if you create more than visual art 😉
I love seeing the process of a piece coming into being… but it smells heavenly… 🙂
Thank you Claire!
I too love to experiment, but have never thought of using smell as the main thing in my art. Very clever idea and good result. I call it : the benefits of not knowing, when I do experiment. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Laila!
Wonderful textures and shapes! That stamping on the frame is really nice. I love the idea of “evoke” in art as well.
Thank you Debbie!
Love the texture in your project. Thanks for joining us at one little word.
Thank you Clare!
Love this!! I too have been thinking of stepping outside my comfort zone and experiment a bit. As always…thank you for your wonderful creative inspiration!!!
Thanks Danielle!
Beautiful. The textures are just fabulous. My grandchild will never say that she loved the smell of my cooking. She cooks better than I do!
Thank you Faye! By the way it’s great if you have a chef-cook in the family 😉
How perfectly clever you are! I love this idea–so beautiful and unusual.
Thank you Beth!
Wow this is truly amazing. I love what you have created and how you created this very provocative piece.
Nicole/Beadwright
Thank you Nicole!
wonderful mixed media piece, I love how you have used the dry fruit, I have not seen that before 🙂
Thank you Sandra!
Beautiful unique piece! I’m a good cook…but my daughter does most of the cooking now and it often reminds me of my grandmother…the aroma is exactly the same!!
You evoked a great memory!
Hugs Giggles
Thank you Giggles xoxo I wish sometimes that someone will take cooking over from me, I’ll have more time for art then 😉 but yeah I have a son and he is only 11, no chance.
very cool! This looks like it was so much fun to make. Beautiful work! xx
Thank you Pauline!
This is so beatuiful, Ruth!
Thank you Sharon!
This project is oozing creativity! I like how you used the back of the canvas – I never would have thought of that! – and decorated the frame with stencils. Using real fruit is just CRAZY cool!
Thank you Susan!