stew

the sacred stew dance

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It’s finally gotten to be “soup and stew” weather here in the Pacific Northwest! When I was making a stew the other day I realized I was twirling, aka dancing, in the kitchen; popping quickly between the stove, the counter where I was chopping veg, the pantry and the refrigerator. I was so excited about making a stew that I’d forgotten my cardinal rule of getting all the ingredients out before starting.

Ah well.

The experience inspired this artwork I’ve titled “The Sacred Dance Of The Stew-pot”.

SacredDanceOfTheStewPotPicSm

Sacred Dance Of The Stew-pot – by Clancy – 8 x 10 inch – ink and gouache on board

I created the artwork using my fountain pen and gouache on board – after I’d finished eating of course.

The stew turned out okay. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever made. But for the first stew of the season I’ll give it marks for effort.

 

illustrated poetry about food

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Last weekend I spent some time looking through my cookbook collection which sits on the shelves next to my poetry collection. Since I’ve been practicing both cooking and writing I look to my favorite “masters” in each genre for inspiration. It’s nice to have them all in one spot.  Mollie Katzen, Aliza Green, Rick Bayless and Maryana Vollstedt are some of my favorite masters from the cooking world.  Edward Gorey, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash and Shel Silverstein are some favorites from the poetry world.

I spent the most “looking-for-a-recipe-to-cook” time with Vollstedt’s cookbook “The Big Book Of Soups And Stews” as it was a cold weekend. Plus a hearty stew puts me in a happy “comfort food feast” frame of mind. But the most “just admiring a cook book” time was spent with Katzen. However I did use one of Katzen’s salad recipes to go alongside a stew. I love the way Katzen hand lettered her recipes and illustrated them in her “Moosewood Cookbook”.  My poetry time was divided between Edward Gorey and Edward Lear.

This concept of mashing up wildly different genres as inspiration to make something new? Well Austin Kleon has written wonderful creative thinking technique books about that – specifically Steal Like An Artist!

Anyway I combined my big pot of stew thoughts with the limerick poem form for this poem I wrote and illustrated below – which has been published now on They Draw & Cook.

ForTheCooksPlentitude72

For the cooks plentitude – by Clancy https://www.theydrawandcook.com/artists/sue-clancy

I’m still practicing combining India ink and gouache – and doing text with a brush.  I used a smaller size brush this time for the type – and all lower case letters.  This brush-and-ink type style felt looser, more relaxed, than the type I did with a fountain pen for the birthday card – though both projects use a similar lower case.  I like both methodologies and will probably use both techniques as they fit with the project at hand. But this brush style… I’m liking it and am finding my hand reaching for a brush more often.

What do you think?

thumb use – an illustrated poem

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Thumb Use  –  By Clancy – 

 

Sissy had extra-large thumbs.

So she cleared the table of crumbs

saying “What else can you do,

in the absence of stew,

but make excellent use of your thumbs?”

ThumbUse72

gouache illustration by Clancy