What Makes A Painting Remarkable?

I've been thinking about this one.  A lot.  It seems to me that for a painting to be really great it has to have a certain "something", but what in the heck is it?  I found this terrific website written by artist Robert Bissett, "The Secret To Better Painting".  He says, "You must first have an idea, an artistic concept."  To me, this means finding a vehicle such as sharp contrast, unusual texture, drama in lighting, etc., that will help make the painting stand out.  There are plenty of paintings with apples, but what will make your apple painting look remarkable?  Speaking of apple paintings, mine is coming along.  I decided to use strong color along with the absence of color as my artistic concept.  One of my favorite artists, Frank Serrano, gets this just right.  I love how he infuses atmosphere into his landscape paintings with the use of neutral grays and pops of color.

Ok, I'm off to eat an apple :)  Really, though, do you use a technique that sets your art apart? 

Do You Have Cyber Friends?

I have different kinds of friends.  Friends that are acquaintances, like my book club friends.  Friends that are work related, like my artist friends.  Hinda is a friend that I've had forever, who would do anything for me.  We're so close we don't even remember how we met.  Now I have a new category, "cyber" friend.  Last week I was looking at my Etsy shop and I popped in on a discussion thread of a promotional team that I'm on.  I was shocked to see everyone was talking about a team member whose husband had just died.  I don't know any of these people but it was very sad.  One lady proposed we collect money to send her a food gift.  She created a gift account in PayPal and after a couple of days there was almost $200!  The woman whose husband died was so appreciative.  Janice has become my cyber friend.  We've actually been friends for 48 years!  I got her name when I was 12 as a pen pal in elementary school and we've been corresponding ever since.  She lives in England.  We just started emailing and she checks my FaceBook page to see what's new.  I sent her a photo of my latest work-in-progress:

 
This one is fun!  I love to do glass.  I set up the props and took the photo (a lot of photos).  Hopefully I'll finish it in a week or so.  I plan to enter this one in a competition.  To all my friends, cyber or not, have a very happy healthy New Year!

Top Five Food Blogs

I have a new found love of food.  I didn't always love food.  For many years, due to a chronic illness, I had to limit salt.  My cooking was bland, my food life was blah.  Now that I'm able to eat normally, I'm becoming a bit adventurous.  Have you noticed that I paint a lot of food?  I love the colors, shapes and textures of food.

Here's one of my food photos, a set up for a new painting.

Here's the painting, "Two Scoops".  I'll be posting this painting and more small works on Etsy

 I recently discovered the world of food blogs.  Some of these blogs have the most amazing photos of food you'll ever see!  Here are my top five favorite food blogs:
1.  Smitten Kitchen  Written in an easy, breezy style by Deb Perelman, this food blog is about classic comfort food.  No fancy food ingredients, here!  Just good food & amazing photos.
2.  101 Cookbooks  This one is by Heidi Swenson.  She features wholesome, vegetarian recipes along with fabulous photos.  The food reflects her world travels.  I want to try the Baked Quinoa Patties.
3.  Seven Spoons  This blog has lovely photos and great writing by Tara O'Grady.  She makes each recipe look and sound delicious!
4. TasteSpotting  Talk about beautiful photos!  Folks submit food photos, you click on the photo and are taken to the recipe.  You can search by various categories.
5.  Foodgawker  This is the same idea as TasteSpotting.  I could spend hours looking at these photos and I've tried several of the recipes.  There's a "gawkerverse": dwellinggawker, weddinggawker and  craftgawker.

Do you look at food blogs?  Any favorites?