Ever been confronted with a problem you're not quite sure how to solve? Crazy way to unwind isn't it? You look at it and look at it and look at it and turn it around and look at it some more. Such has been my relationship with hop art. I've been obsessed with drawing hops. I"m not quite sure why. I chuck it up to unexplained obsessions.
QUITE UGLY
Hop cones are not the most attractive botanicals, yet I'm insanely attracted to them. The hop plant is quite unassuming, the vineyard's ugly duckling. The hope cones are green. Yes, green. Hop farms look like fields of giant leafy bushes that rise in tall V shapes. These massive plants are held up with wires and hide the beautiful hillsides that would make up the stunning panoramas one is used to admiring in vineyard landscapes.
International Artist Magazine wrote about a most dreaded artist problem; greens don't sell. People apparently don't like to look at too much green. For the past year I have been painting hops, attempting to add color, shape, and variation to a plant that's added so much to my lfie. While the exercise has wrought some interesting results, the basic problem still loomed before me. It's difficult to stray from the not "quite ugly" hop painting.
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
While admiring vintage wine posters an idea flashed before my eyes. Why not incorporate more character, life, color, and a vintage feel into my hop paintings? I've loved the elegance, playfulness, and artistic beauty found in vintage art particularly from 1920's France, art deco and wpa.
Le Hop Mistress, Biere Celebebration is the first, of what I intend to be a study of vintage art. Part of me wishes I'd come up with some amazing new discovery, a completely new technique. For now, I am quite content to be a student, and spend some time with my old favorites. I realize there is really nothing new under the sun. Many of our bright ideas are a compilation of old ideas blended into one new creation.
LE HOP MISTRESS
Why Le Hop Mistress you may ask? Well, anything French is quite romantic, and I love the idea of hero worship; glorifying beer and all the wonders of life with beer in it. The image is obviously a female and a hop. I though the title Hop Mistress would be fitting. Not so long ago, I was honored with the title, Mistress of the Hop, by the Tasting Nitch, a beer blog headed up by American living in France. So, Cheers to you, Nichole. Thank you for the lovely write up and your work a champion of beer in wine country.
Here again I am faced with 2 more cliches; "what a small world this is", and "life comes around full circle".
Le Hop Mistress series is dedicated to all the wonderful women who love beer, and the men who appreciate them.
