Still Life

I love to visit art museums and when I do, I am always drawn to works in the "still life" genre. Artists have been creating such works for literally thousands of years. But I have particularly been drawn to the works of the 17th Century Dutch/Flemish artists. These artists referred to such works at "stilleven" which the English adopted and called "still life". The the use of lighting along with realism in these paintings always amaze and impress me. There should be no surprise that those who prefer to create art with a camera rather than a brush would embrace this genre, too. In the summer of 2017 during my first visit to the Chateau deGudanes I had many opportunities to find subjects for my own still life images. Our wonderful chef Julie Marr doesn't believe in creating just delicious meals, but they also must be presented as works of art as well. She sets up her kitchens, even when she is just a visiting chef, to appear as a work of art with her supplies of fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc displayed on a table that is artistically pleasing. Photocrowd frequently has contests related to still life. The image above is the latest iteration, one I took in France in 2017. It has won awards each time it has been entered. The first time was in a contest called "Still Life with Food" which was both peer and professionally judged. My peers judged the image as as 12th, but the judge gave me first place. The latest version was entered in a contest called "Still Life Impressionism." I created the "Van Gogh" look using the iColorama app. One of these days I think I will have this or the original printed on canvas so that I can enjoy looking at it every day. Below is the image as it looked when I entered it the first time. The arm that can be seen behind the bread is Julie's. It was taken when we were treated to a wonderful picnic in the woods on the grounds of Chateau deGudanes.