The paintings that are hung on these virtual walls, range from completed work, to works-in-progress. The process is a bit like fly fishing, as I work to push the paint and composition toward an abstract direction - only to reel it back in again, to find the sweet spot for detail and clarity.

Soup With Little Peas














Potage Avec Petits Pois
(Soup with Little Peas)
By M. Sonoqui Gillette
Oil on Linen
11" X 14"
Sold

The following includes an excerpt from a writing I gave to my brother, some time ago, - written inside a soup cook book.

Soup is such a fascinating metaphore for life.

One has the ability to combine a few willing compatriots (ingredients or accomplices, as the case may be), and create a delightfully new collaboration. The end result might as easily be soup, or an impromptu plein air party at Crystal Cove Beach).

The point being, that something new can be creatively derived by the combining of everyday-objects or solutions we have around us. A new day or an odd-ball challenge, may require you to "make soup!".

Comedienne and playwright, Lili Tomlin had a line in her play, where her character (Trudy the baglady) pondered the meaning of soup vs. art. Upon looking at the Andy Warhol Painting of A Can of Tomato Soup, she questioned, "Soup? or Art?" The truth is that perhaps it is both - soup and art. As we find so often that art - does indeed imitate life, I am perfectly enchanted by the ingredients people use in soup; and the circumstance about how that prescious bowl of soup, came to be. So often, it is the smallest little element, in that potential heap of bountiful ingredients that life gives us - that makes all the difference. It may be that "thing", which is imperceptable to the eye or palette; yet it is quite easily detected by the heart, that makes all the difference.

This painting pays homage, to artist Martine von Winterfeldt, and the lovely "post workshop" gathering she created around her soup and divine curry. And of the petits pois in the soup? Ah, without hesitation, I would say it was the essence of friendship, that meandered in and around her bountiful table.

Artist Davy Liu, might recognize this painting, as I started it (albeit a slightly different composition) in his studio. My sincere thanks to artist Davy Liu, and his wife Joan, for Davy's wonderfully crafted workshop held at his Laguna Beach studio and gallery.

Interesting links:
1. Amazon.com has Lili Tomlin's DVD, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe".
2.
3.

© 2007 M. Sonoqui Gillette. All rights reserved.