Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Basic Ingredients

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio



The Art About Food Show just opened at LibertyTown last Friday night. I'd been collecting items to use in a food-themed assemblage for awhile and I finally got them all together about a week ago. It started with a cocoa tin and a small antique doll. (I think she's about 4 inches tall.)

And this page from a promotional cookbook:

Normally, I would make a color copy of it, but I started this project late at night, so I decided I'd go ahead and use the original.

This was my rough layout. I painted the rolling pin to match the ad, and then placed items where I thought they should go. I took this photo so I could put everything back after I added color and texture to the background. (Sorry the quality of the photos wasn't better. I wasn't thinking about showing them to anyone else when I took them.)




I had some old paper ribbon that I was used by 3 Chefs Restaurant to wrap around cardboard boxes of fried chicken. I used it to define the different areas of my artwork. You can see that I added color, too. Nothing was secured to the board at this point, so I took that photo to refer back to later.


This is the finished piece. It's rare for me to stay this true to my original concept. Usually, what I start out with and what I end up with are miles apart. In this case, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do, and not a lot of time to complete it, so I had to trust my instincts, and get it done. In the end I was pleased with the result.


3 comments:

Kim G. said...

I adore your little baking assemblage. So sweet.

Elizabeth said...

It really is fabulous!! the doll is perfect and the tin and how you handled it technically are brilliant!!!

Dawn Elliott said...

It's my first time to your blog - and I think your work is truly amazing! I also love to go second-handing and feel that little jolt of excitement when I come upon something I can use in my art...