SIMPLY WINE! Most recent wine-themed painting by artist, Sandi Whetzel

Simply Wine! 12x24 ©Sandi Whetzel

Simple elegance, simply wine! And if there was any doubt, the cursive written wine design on the abstracted wine bottle literally spells it out. The inspiration for this abstract wine painting was the placement of two dining forks facing together so that their combined shape resembles a wine goblet, with hints of the fork tines serving as highlights.

First I sketched the design and decided that leaving out the top rims of the goblets and letting the goblet stems and wine bottle bottom fade into the background added to the simplicity of the design. The open feeling from the goblet stems up through the open rimless goblets was a calculated decision, as was making the one goblet stand taller, thinner and longer than the other one and making the tops and bottoms of the designs fade back to red. I chose the rainbow of colors ranging from red, orange, yellow orange and yellow to pop against the black background. It's a simple, elegant design that took more thought than you might realize to create a simple, elegant, contemporary abstract painting. Because this well-thought design took less effort to execute, it will sell for less than other more complicated detailed paintings of the same size. It looks great on my sun-washed clay wall until somebody scoops it up from my next wine exhibit event.  Until then, I'm really enjoying its elegant simplicity and its getting rave reviews.

In other news, the Umpqua Valley Winegrowers of Oregon have once again picked one of my art images to promote the 2013 Greatest of the Grape event.  They chose my Grape de Menthe  painting of magenta and white striped grapes.  See it here  It will be on the posters, post cards and tickets to promote the event which occurs March 2nd, 2013 from 7-11 p.m. at the Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino, in Canyonville, OR.  I will be exhibiting as the Featured Artist at the event.  A hand-embellished high quality giclee reproduction of Grape de Menthe on gallery wrapped canvas will be auctioned off at the event. For ticket information click

To quickly see more of Sandi's art, visit