I took this photo to remember — when I’m moved out of this house — this area of my carefully curated, mostly thrift-store art, now with the addition of one painting after the subtraction of a stack of art books to boxes now holding the painting upright. The painting had been hanging on a bedroom wall and never photographs well in the dark or light. The dominant pastel colors will not be photographed by me, I guess, but that doesn’t matter because I love the painting. I regret it’s a love hard to share here, but it’s integral to this post, just like this photo:
When I saw and bought the painting years ago, there were two reasons. I love palm trees near the ocean, and love paintings and photographs of such scenes and have several. The second reason is that it reminded me of Santa Monica, where my daughter and I lived for a good number of years. There’s no visible signature on it and I don’t have a clue who painted it, have only gratitude for the artist who painted these palm trees and what I assume to be the ocean, even if people do walk about on the water in full dress and the horses don’t appear to mind.
I’m also grateful for the lady who had a small, framed print of a very similar painting sitting on her desk. When I saw it, I told her that I have one just like it! but not a print, on my bedroom wall. She wrote down the name of the artist on her print and I found that French artist Raoul Dufy painted such scenes as the one in my painting, but that it wasn’t Santa Monica, rather the Les Anglais promenade in Nice which he preferred. Also, to my untrained-in-art but trained in evidence self, looking online at some of his work, he used brighter colors for his skies, plus I have a litho of his Deauville Paddock which I’d got at the same time, and it is bold, dark colors. In any case, my mind associates this painting with the little city which had palm trees in the Palisades Park, right by the Pacific Ocean. We were there often.
So tonight it’s faux Dufy and naan pizza, which could also be known as non pizza and is very fast. Oven only 400 degrees. Garlic naan on a cookie sheet topped today in this order with: turkey pepperoni, 4 slices of sharp cheddar cheese (one layer only, trim the edges close to the naan or you’ll have too much burned cheese), dollop of red sauce onto each of the cheese slices and spread it a bit, sliced black olives, sliced yellow onion, lots of sliced red bell pepper, halved grape tomatoes, salt and pepper, a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes, and Parmesan. 20 minutes in the oven. Last minute bad idea: adding broccoli florets without the olive oil. I had to take them off in shame, but the use of sharp cheddar in place of mozzarella was redemptive.
Previously I wrote about the distant painting in the art shot up top, a contemplative favorite. It’s at https://mschefinseattle.com/2015/11/04/art-as-food-1/
Ms Chef in Seattle 