de stijl | Nelipot Lane

The Abstract Cake

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence – Matisse

But however fleeting the moment created embrace it fully! The cakes that I create may only be enjoyed for a short while, but they are forever apart of people’s experiences, a fond memory looked back on, laughed at and perhaps hopefully thought of in some kind of wonderment!

Trying to make a piece of art for someone who taught and still studies art was somewhat daunting, but the idea of creating a gallery space, a cake form mini retrospective of modern art was very exciting indeed!

Matisse, Picasso, abstract art, family, Wales and Ireland, these are some of the things that are important to Maggie so these would be woven together to create a private exhibition for her to peruse and then perhaps devour!

Each side of this square cake would be a certain artists style of work, linked by colour and texture, stitching the piece together and each side would be devoted to a family member.

I received a beautiful wedding picture of the family to model each person on and a photograph of her grandson with jam all over his face, luckily for me this is abstract so a likeness was all I had to worry about!

So today, here at The Nelipot Lane Gallery we have a special guided tour, please follow me so we may begin!

Three Dimensional elements to draw you around the piece, creating movement and continuity.

Matisse would be Maggie’s and her husband’s side, I wanted them to be in a place they would love.

The colours in Matisse’s work are so very beautiful, the bold patterns and lines seem almost childlike in essence.

I wanted to recreate the Welsh landscape that she loves so much with a photo that my partner took when he and I went to visit Wales.

I love the different styles of Matisse, I favour his Fauvist style but wanted to include some abstract expressionism and his later cut – out work to help with the flow of the piece.

Kandinsky would be Maggie’s daughters side, his soft washes of colour against the dissecting circles and bold black lines intrigued me.

An abstract version of her veil (she was the bride in the photograph) and the soft shades match her colouring perfectly.

Picasso’s cubist paintings with their expressive brushstrokes and muted browns and beige would have to be her son’s side as I was told he was the one with the crazy hair!