Wine and Oysters

This painting still life features the classic table - wine, oysters and flowers.

Wine and Oysters

Preparing for the still life was a fun adventure.   I paid a visit to Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury so that I could handpick oysters that had good visual appeal.   The fellow was more than gracious, showing me which oysters had more color or variation in their shells and invited me to choose exactly the oysters I wanted.  He was knowledgeable on taste as well and since I would be eating this still life at some point, I made my selections based on both criteria!   I got a half dozen Duxbury Bay Oysters (one knot on the bag) and a half dozen Sandwich oysters (two knots on the bag).

I made the same speech at the wine store; the wine bottle would be depicted in a still life painting highlighting the delight of food.  The fellow suggested Le Grand Caillou from Southern France where an abundance of seafood would call for such a Sauvignon Blanc.  A whorl adorns the label, a not-so-subtle hint that this wine would pair well with seafood.

For the set-up I included outer shells, inner shells and lots of lemon wedges.   A speckled blue vase with yellow daisies repeated the blue and yellow scheme, and a wooden handled corkscrew on the bottom right was the painting lead in.  

One interesting aspect of this painting is that it provided a good example of adjacent item influence.  Not only do items cast shadows, but depending on the reflective characteristics of the element, they throw their color around as well.   The lemons were throwing strong yellow light on the shells as well as the cloth.  I played around with it a little bit to decide how strong or diluted to make this cast color.   The photo may not pick it up, but if you get a chance to see the painting, the reflective color is there.