I was commissioned to create this painting (see below) for Zambistro Restaurant in Medina, New York … our favorite restaurant. Michael Zambito, the talented chef and owner of Zambistro, and I share a love of pears as not only an elegant subject for art, but also as an elegant food.
Michael requested a monochrome painting of pears for a particular spot in his restaurant, and this is the painting I created in answer to his vision. It is nineteen tall by fifty inches wide; oil on 1/4″ pure ecualyptus hardwood.
The walls at Zambistro are a particularly beautiful, deep bronze-gold color and I felt that, even if the painting were to be in monochrome, it should bear a hint of the hue of the walls rather than being strictly black and white. With that in mind, I mixed a paint color that matched the impression of color that comes off of the walls in the restaurant. I then added small amounts of that mixture in with my custom-mixed black, grays, and “whites”.
The result is this dramatic and harmonious painting, “Pears in Moonlight” (so named from a suggestion by my father). (Note: The photo above is the painting when it was still drying, on the mantel above the fireplace at our farm.)
Over the next months I will continue to create paintings that will hang at Zambistro Restaurant. The paintings will be of pears, sunflowers, and possibly other subjects Michael and I agree on. While I was commissioned to painting “Pears in Moonlight” (so named from a suggestion from my father), the other paintings will be available for sale to customers at Zambistro.
30″ x 15″; Oil on 1/4″ pure eucalyptus hardboard; $450
Available for purchase
Seen here is one of two paintings (“Pears for Michael”) which we will hang on February 13, 2008 at Zambistro.
If you live in, or visit, Western New York, I highly recommend Zambistro Restaurant for the fantastically delicious gourmet comfort food created by Michael Zambistro. While you are there, I hope you enjoy my art as well.
Copyright © 2008 J.L. Fleckenstein ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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