The Art of Food
Have you ever heard the saying you eat with your eyes first? For many this could not be a truer statement. I consider my self a foodie as much as I am an artist. There is something about the rich and distinct colours that food offers when combined all together; it becomes art on a plate. The cause and effect of beautifully plated and cooked food is it appeals to one’s hunger and can also be a source of inspiration as well. A great looking and tasting meal can easily release those same endorphins in a person as enjoying a favorite piece of art or artist. Food and art can go hand in hand in creating a sense of nostalgia and warmth for the partaker in similar ways.
“For the foodie artist the whole world of natural foods and culinary arts can be a closely knit marriage that make the senses come alive and inspire both in the kitchen and on the canvas.
Science has proven that a healthy food experience is defined somewhat by our senses. First, we eat with our eyes, and then with our noses, and finally by taste. Occasionally our nose will win over sight as the wafting aromas win us over in the battle of our senses, however most times what we see remains a huge factor in our first attraction to food. There for creating this food experience is somewhat of an art in and of itself.
Researchers have revealed that a hormone is responsible for triggering people to eat more by causing food to appear more delicious. Ghrelin, a natural molecule, can improve a person’s memory and perception of all things related to food. It acts actively on the brain to make food look more appetizing. This is just a little bit of the science behind what makes food so interesting and inspiring, which is why perhaps cooking food is not only an artform on its own, but the subject of many famous artists though out history.
Looking back historically food has always played a role in art. Stone Age cave painters used vegetable juice and animal fats as binding ingredients in their paints. Egyptians carved pictographs of crops and bread on hieroglyphic tablets, and painters during the Renaissance and Dutch golden age painted still life’s with carefully rendered illusions of feasts rich with colour and dewy surfaces. It is not just these robust and life like displays of food that were relevant of that time, there was a Renaissance artist by the name of Giuseppe Arcimboldo who painted whimsical portraits in which faces were composed in puzzle like portraits and comprised completely of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo: "Rudolf II as Verumnus 1590".
“Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books.
The thing about food, in all its glory, is that it has been inspiring creative folks for centuries both in art and in a culinary sense. Unlike culinary arts, we view food in art and must rely completely on our sense of sight to engage us in an image. Consider this however, a well painted image can have the same physiological affect on the brain as the real deal if done well and properly. Just for a moment think of a time you saw an image, did your mouth water and your belly start to grumble, were you perusing a high-end cookbook, food magazine or food ad? I can say personally, I have experienced this firsthand. Truthfully the better something looks, the more inclined you are to want it. It stimulates that natural molecule, making whatever it is you are looking at, all the more appealing.
When I think of art and food, yes intuitively I travel back in time to those grand still lives painted to memorialize a grand feast with their picture-perfect spreads and life like grandeur. However, I also think of food as art in its simplest form. There is something equally delightful about apples hanging upon their branches, grapes on the vine in a vineyard, cheese wheels stacked and ripening in a creamery or the elegantly styled food on a dinner plate. For the foodie artist the whole world of natural foods and culinary arts can be a closely knit marriage that make the senses come alive and inspire both in the kitchen and on the canvas.
It is worth it to consider that those who have a passion for food, often also have a close and personal love of the visual arts. Perhaps it is a love of the finer things in life, or a delicate palate balanced between our visual senses, smells and taste that defines a persons inspiration, but truthfully that is for each individual to decide for them-selves. For me as an artist, is as simple as I love great food, as much as I love the natural colours and nostalgia that comes from a great meal. Consequently, for me this translates most times to that content place where I find my creative flow, filled with calm inspiration and nostalgia. Artistically, I find that there is as much beauty in what I see on a plate, as there is in how wonderful something might taste. Food offers one of nature’s purest forms of colour and can be the muse for many things that become great imagery.
