Salty, sweet, bitter, sour…all the elements of a perfect culinary masterpiece.
I am a former chef and now an avid home cook. I always pay close attention to the balance of flavors in my cooking. This gets me thinking…what about the elements of a balanced painting? How do you achieve that balance? For me a successful painting must include good design, spot-on values, expressive brushwork, and harmonious color. But there is something else in the mix, a fifth element that makes our paintings unique to us. Let’s equate that with the elusive and often overlooked fifth element of taste…Umami.
Umami is that savory, meaty flavor found in such foods as mushrooms, soy sauce, and good Parmesan cheese. Though this mysterious flavor had been known for centuries, it wasn’t identified until 1908, when Japanese researcher Kikunae Ikeda isolated the taste. I think Umami is unique and sometimes elusive, just like that “je na sais quoi” that makes our paintings powerful and not just correct.
Very much like your handwriting is yours and yours alone, no one can paint exactly like you. Every time you paint something, you are experiencing a certain mood, your brushwork is uniquely yours, and your vision and creativity is culled from your mind and experiences. No one else has all of those things. Only you. But what if you could inject “you-mami” into each and every painting?
To do this, it is necessary to practice the fundamentals so that you become “unconsciously competent” in the words of Abraham Maslow. That just means painting is intuitive and you don’t even have to think about it, it just comes naturally. Once this happens, let the Umami begin. This came true for me after many, many years of practicing the foundational work of building a painting. I can’t put my finger on when, but one day like a lightening bolt, I was slapping down paint in an expressive way with brushwork unique to me. Color-mixing seemed effortless. My paintings started to be in line with artists I had long admired for their juicy paint strokes and luminous color. The highest compliment I have recently received was from an admired artist who said, “I always know your work immediately. No one paints like you.” I was thrilled to the bone.
I encourage you to learn and practice the elements that go into making a successful painting. Solid beginnings usually end up in successful endings. Learn the salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. Then you’ll eventually and surely be able to taste the Umami.
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