PERSONAL PROJECT: The Artists

Mark Rothko

For this personal project series, I’m creating food portraits in the style of famous artists. First up is my favorite, Mark Rothko. His color blocked paintings are justifiably famous, and have a meditative quality when viewed in the right environment. The challenge (and fun) with creating these food portraits was blocking off the ingredients which have a tendency to run.

All images available for purchase in my shop.

Layered jams — raspberry, blueberry and apricot-raspberry — in the style of Mark Rothko.
Pesto, Parmesan cheese and marinara sauce make up a food version of the Italian flag in green, white and red. The style was inspired by Mark Rothko's famous color block paintings.
Peanut butter & jelly get the Mark Rothko treatment in a squared off version of food color blocking. The brown tones of the peanut butter marry well with the tan background, lending a vibrant pop of color from the raspberry jam at the bottom.
Peanut butter & jelly inspired by Mark Rothko's famous color-block paintings. The shape of the peanut butter is more organic here, with swirls breaking the plane in places, and smeared so thinly you can see the tan surface. The raspberry jam at the b

Jackson Pollock

Creating an edible ode to Jackson Pollack’s iconic splatter paintings, I crafted layers upon layers of chocolate — using everything from brownies and pudding to frosting and melted chips.

Images available for purchase in my shop.

Chocolate Pollock #2. Layers upon layers of chocolate combine to form an edible food portrait inspired by the paintings of Jackson Pollock.
Chocolate Pollock #1. Inspired by the art of Jackson Pollock, I created this chocolate piece with smear, dabs and drizzles of various chocolates. Lit from behind, areas of the chocolate display a warm glow.

Paul Klee

My personal project series of food portraits in the style of famous artists continues with a tribute to Paul Klee. Juicy, vibrant squares of melon and citrus have a sense of movement and vitality via light, shadow and varied depth.

Images available for purchase in my shop.

Squares of melons in varying heights and sizes create a sense of whimsy and movement through light, shadow and color. Watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melon all play a role, whether through the edible flesh or hard and textured rinds.
Squares of citrus in varying heights and sizes create a sense of whimsy and movement through light, shadow and color. Lemon, naval and cara cara oranges, grapefruit and limes all play a role, whether through the edible flesh or colorful, textured rin

Piet Mondrian

My personal project series of food portraits in the style of famous artists continues with a tribute to Piet Mondrian.
Simple in concept and difficult in execution, this grid of squid ink pasta filled with marinara, pesto and grated Parmesan cheese
offers a vastly different view using the same ingredients as the Rothko image above.

Next

Distortion