Watercolor Paintings of your Kitchen

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Creating Watercolor Paintings of Your Own Kitchen

Have you observed your kitchen as inspiration to paint a watercolor? Whether the room is dark or well-lit, cluttered or austere, frugal or grand, neat or piled with dishes, there’s inspiration for the taking. Artists have painted and sketched scenes from kitchens for hundreds of years. The intimacy of home nestles under each brush stroke and pen line. Let’s consider watercolor paintings of your kitchen!

Painting Beauty from the Mundane

Artists who inspire us with paintings from common, every day scenes – like Pierre Bonnard – serve as testimonials that you don’t have to go anywhere to make great art.

We know that painting can transform the ordinary into poetry.

The renovation from banal to magnificent can be an elixir for the artist – by diving deep into the process of representing the simple object in view.

And the results can lift the viewer – by creating art that conjures a closer look at commonplace things.

Painters Making Beautiful Art Inspired by Their Kitchens

• Patrick Saunders paints all subjects, but my favorites are from his roomscapes and house exteriors. Read his text next to the painting he created of the kitchen.
• Teddi Parker paints all subjects as well, but in this fun, geometrical rendering of sink full of dishes – she’s working digitally, rather than with traditional paint and brushes. Do you work with any digital apps on your tablet or ipad?

Painting the Contents of Your Refrigerator

• Have you ever snapped a photo of the contents of your refrigerator as painting fodder? Take a look at Zoey Frank’s version for inspiration. If that seems too complex to paint, follow Danny Gregory and make a sketch of your frig. Here’s another fabulous Zoey Frank kitchen painting.
• If you absolutely can’t imagine painting your own kitchen because, maybe you don’t have one, try sketching a cafe, like Will Freeborn did here. You can read more about Will Freeborn’s experiments with watercolor in moleskine sketchbooks here.

Make a Painting of Your Kitchen, spontaneously

• Björn Wirtz also writes about making the most of staying home, by painting the rooms you occupy. His beautiful little kitchen painting inspires me to make more intimate room studies.
• Valerie Pirlot created a spontaneous, colorful, striking little gem with this painting of her kitchen . Read her description; I love that she included the grocery bags on the floor.

Paint a Vignette of your Kitchen

• Heather Ihn Martin did this fabulous gouache painting of bowls stacked on a shelf. I also love this painting of her stand mixer. Heather is the creator of the Facebook Group The Art Refuge, which started as a result of the shelter in place order. Artists have a safe place to post work and support each other. Have you joined?
• Iranian artist Mona Dehghani painted this charming watercolor of a corner of her kitchen – with dinosaurs. If you peruse her feed on Instagram, you’ll find portraits of the contents of her refrigerator too.

Masterful Paintings of Complex Scenery

• Donald Jurney’s paintings make me understand that I haven’t trained my eyes to notice enough, and I must work harder at observing when I’m looking at every day objects. He is so wonderful with muted color, and shadow and light.
• If you’ve visited before, you know I adore Shari Blaukopf’s work, and this little kitchen watercolor sketch is a perfect example of finding charm in every corner of your house.

What are You Painting This Week?

I should admit here that I’ve had a life-long affinity for artistic paintings of kitchens. I’ve painted watercolors of vacation kitchens, Florence kitchens, summer cottage kitchens, and my current kitchen.

I have a thing for paintings of dining rooms too. Should I curate a parcel of artists doing fabulous art focused on the rooms we eat in? Let me know in the comments.

What are your favorite rooms to render in paint? Why do you think you’re drawn to them as a subject? Is your interest related to a sense of home, or an interest in the shape of the objects usually found in a particular room?

Have you ever painted your art studio? That might be an excellent next post from other artists to share in this blog too. What say you?

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you in the next post!

Belinda

P.S. Another font of inspiration for paintings of family, home and yard is the incredible art of Carl Larsson (1853-1919). This painting of the kitchen table is one of my favorites.

P.P.S. If you like perusing watercolor sketchbooks, here’s a tour of Brenda Swenson’s latest sketch pad on Youtube.

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Art Quote

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.

Octavia E. Butler

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