Let's talk food : Picture perfect food : Tjalf Sparnaay

Last night I was browsing through some writing on food photography when I chanced across the works of contemporary Dutch artist Tjalf Sparnaay, an exponent of what he himself calls mega realism (part of the global hyper-realist art movement) who, captures on his canvas, mundane odds and ends. Only in his works they no longer remain mundane. They are magnified, larger than life and the detail captured bowl you over.

I was quite taken by his works, especially his oil paintings of food items — sandwiches loaded with ham, boiled eggs and luscious tomatoes, a perfect sunny side up, French fries slathered with ketchup — his paintings are finger-licking good.

Like I have said before I am obsessed with everything related to food. Now I have another something to drool over. I read up some more about him, enough to whet my appetite…erh curiosity and with much thought I shot him a mail asking for an interview.

This blog is fast turning into a recipe blog, and this was just my chance to bring in more elements. I was sure you guys would lobe his work too and a relish the chance to get to know the man. I was hardly expecting a reply considering here was an artist considered one of the most important once working in this style. But fortunately I did receive a reply and unfortunately this is what it read

So I wrote back

And he did reply back and seemed quite impressed by "ethic" bit. Honesty pays. Now from what I have read, his cooks the food he paints, usually nothing gourmet or complicated, mostly sandwiches and the kind, photographs them and then converts then paints them on his canvas. Sometimes he also takes a bite or two of his subjects. But it turns out he is not a foodie. He says

"I am no foodie, I paint food because of its landscape like qualities and possibility to tell the story I want about ordinary popular things in a very special way: A painting isolates the subject from daily life and gives it a new reality. Food needs that and (I) can express my skills and love for details and abstract moments as well. "

Not much of an interview but it felt good to have that interaction. And the best part is he gave me permission to use these photographs on my blog and share them with you.

All photographs have been sourced from www.tjalfsparnaay.nl and the credit is solely theirs.

Thanks Tjalf for agreeing to share this