Tribute painting, as a thank you remembrance to Mr. Wayne Thiebaud. American artist born November 15, 1920. Died December 25, 2021. I didn’t feel up to sketching a portrait, so I sketched this cupcake—because he helped the world look at baked goods and so much more in a wonderfully unique and inspiring way.
Spend some time looking at Thiebaud’s work on-line, or if you’re near a museum that has his works (and it’s safe to go there because of Covid controls), or in a book if you have some.
See what really looking at something looks like.
Here’s a short little video where he talks about his work.
The book shown at the end of that video is excellent and I highly recommend it.
We loved the counting book when Rachel was little. Love your cupcake painting!
Karen, you told me about that counting book, may have even pulled it out (though Rachel was older then). I loved it too and went out and got one. It’s somewhere, in one of the boxes of books that is being saved with me, but exactly where I couldn’t say.
Roz, thank you so much for posting this, I was unaware he’d passed. So sad. His color blows me away, I always loved his work, but have been recently studying him, and started to paint in oils because of his amazing color.
His work is a great body of paintings well worth studying. I’m glad you’re doing that.
Roz, when I learned of Thiebaud’s death I immediately thought of you. I even wondered if you might write a blog post about it! While watching the the short video you recommended above, I was surprised to learn that he drew and painted his pie slices from memory. Do you know if this was true of all his work? I had assumed he drew from life.
Sharon, I’m sorry I don’t know how he actually worked. I have see sketches which he then worked over and over. I don’t know if he did the original sketches from life and then distilled from there. He was a very thoughtful painter and very conscious of the design of surface and composition which requires a lot of work after initial sketching. I’m afraid you’ll have to keep watching videos and reading books to come up with the answer you’re seeking on this one.
Thank you for posting this. I had never heard of him, but I absolutely love his work! I love painting cakes and his work is so inspirational. And I saw a wonderful greyhound drawing in his work online too, which made my day as we have a whippet (small greyhound) that I love to draw.
Martine I’m so glad that you enjoyed looking at his work after I introduced you. I hope you will continue to look at his work and discover so many fun things! And I hope you keep drawing that whippet!