A lemon, rind dangling mid-peel. A bountiful fruit bowl, grapes spilling over the rim. A velvet tablecloth, rumpled just so.
Food and fine art have long been bedfellows, tracing back to the depictions of banquets and bacchanals in ancient Greece and Rome. In Jackson, the merry marriage of culinary and visual feasting is best expressed in the annual Palates & Palettes Gallery Walk, a stroll between some 30 downtown galleries, all of which feature fine vittles alongside their fine art. The evening fete, staged this Friday, is free and open to all.
With Palates & Palettes upon us, we have teamed up with WRJ Home to create a tableau at once dramatic and delicious. Referencing the tradition of Dutch still life paintings, we will stage a scene rich with flavors and textures. In the 15th century, European artists drew inspiration from antiquity and nature to create still lifes lush with fruit, flowers, sweets and vessels. Exercising their virtuosic ability to depict color, shape and texture, Flemish masters layered their paintings with vanitas, symbols of mortality and spirituality.
Drawing on such drama, we have imagined a spread celebrating the harvest, a composition centered on pies: meat varieties featuring lamb, pheasant, dried fruit and squash and a sampling of sweet fall fruits, all washed down with a mead-style beer cocktail.
Our texture-rich interpretation on the still life pairs perfectly with the contemporary aesthetics of WRJ’s featured artists – Taylor Glenn, Heidi Jung, Tim Rein, Ed and Lee Riddell, and Craig Spankie – all of whom will be showcased during the Palates & Palettes reception. The festivities run from 5 to 8 p.m. this Friday at WRJ Home, 30 South King Street. Please join us!