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| Happy Hour 12x20 acrylic ©Sandi Whetzel |
When it comes to wine, why should the imbiber have all the pleasure? Shouldn't the goblet that contains and delivers the wine to the drinker get in on some of the pleasure, too, by becoming intoxicated and reveling in the moment? I approached the creating of this painting with that thought in mind.
I have some tall, elegant cone-shaped goblets that became the inspiration for the shapes of the goblets before they came under the influence of the effects of the wine they were to hold. I had fun sketching the goblets, purposefully exaggerating their shapes with curvy contortions to suggest their dance-like cavorting. The idea of letting the center goblet get so tipsy that it started to spill some of it's wine contents was an afterthought to the original sketch, but I succumbed to it. The addition of the flying, spiraling cork and the oversize bubbles effervescing from the goblets added even more whimsy and merriment to the scene. I chose the stimulating palette of reds to help convey the giddy, gaiety of the painting. The curvy strokes echoing the movement of the cavorting goblets added to the lively, playful flavor of the piece. Even before it was completed I knew the title of the painting had to be Happy Hour.
Inventing paintings from my imagination is challenging but rewarding, as I learned from the first wine painting I dreamed up to fit an imposed "wine on the vine" theme. That painting became one of my most successful paintings and inspired me to use my imagination more. It was the beginning of a wine series. That was a great learning experience and showed me what real creativity is. Real creativity is having to come up with something from nothing other than what you can imagine in your mind to illustrate an idea.
I'll be displaying Happy Hour at the annual Umpqua Valley Arts ARTrageous Summer Arts Festival the last weekend of June and the Umpqua Valley Wine, Art and Music Festival in September, 2010.
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