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Portrait of a Chocolate Cake

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Happy holidays! I give you a portrait of a chocolate cake and propose a toast to the hearth, a place of warmth and closeness and to all things chocolate. Let us find cheer in our creature comforts and appreciate the time we can spend together.

For this painting, I’ve pulled together different things that make the time of year special to me. The holidays are a little different for me because of all the December birthdays in my family, and chocolate cake is a birthday tradition for me. This portrait of a chocolate cake summs up my perfect birthday. The three glasses of port are a tribute to dear friends.

My sister recently moved into an old farmhouse, among its charming features are several large hearths. My fireplace is humbler, but when my son and I gather around it to sing songs, it feels perfect.

As the year concludes, I remember how hopeful I was at the end of 2020 for a year with vaccinations and the return of a more normal way of life. But the world is still in flux, and our plans with it. We have to adjust, to find a way to stay warm and find cheer through the long winter.

Please enjoy the last painting of my Creature Comforts series of Monthly Miniatures, and I hope it helps you find your own sense of warmth and cheer.

hearth, chocolate cake and three glasses of port, miniature holiday still life painting by Rebecca Luncan
Hearth, oil on aluminum 5″ x 5″

I framed this painting in a handmade Dutch Ripple frame with a unique wavy ripple. Tom Matthews created 12 custom frames for this series and each one had a unique combination of ripples. I love this wave pattern – it reminds me of icing. 🙂

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Summer Painting of Plums

by In Monthly Miniature Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Thank goodness I love plums. I have a Shiro Japanese plum tree in my backyard that gives me 2,000 plums most years. I work really hard to use as many as I can, and my refrigerator is comically filled with around 1,000 plums. If you need a plum recipe for anything you can possibly imagine, let me know—I’ve probably tried it! Better yet, stop by if you’re in the neighborhood and I’ll give you some fresh plums or some homemade jam.

I paired the plums with my favorite kind of butterfly, the Tiger Swallowtail, which is a frequent visitor to my garden. I also referenced an image of one of my favorite porcelain bowls in the Seattle Art Museum collection.

It’s surprising to me how happy it makes me to look at these plums, given the countless hours I spend peeling and pitting them. They really are delicious, but it’s also the beauty of the plums themselves. They’re just bursting with life, and the difference in color between the white, powdery bloom and my bright yellow fingerprints just dazzles me.

These little joys are more important than ever right now. Little obstacles and conflicts that used to be so easy to brush off now have a way of feeling insurmountable. Our son is five and is supposed to start Kindergarten on September 7th. We’re worried about the new Delta strain that is more likely to harm children than previous variants of COVID, and we just don’t know what to do. It’s not always possible, but I’ll give you the advice I’m trying to give myself: give yourself some slack and some time to just relax and breathe.

I hope this painting inspires you to go outside, close your eyes to all your troubles and enjoy a bite of summer. 💛

Visit my Monthly Miniatures page to see them all.

Plums in blue and white porcelain bowl with swallowtail Butterflies. Dutch inspired Still life painting by Rebecca Luncan
Plums, oil on copper, 5″ x 5″

Handmade Dutch Ripple Frame

Each frame for this series of miniatures is hand made by Tom Matthews in New York. They feature carved ripples, made in the dutch tradion and take about a month to complete.

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Cheers! New still life painting series for 2021

by In Monthly Miniature Tagged , , , , , ,

Despite the bumpy start to 2021, I still have high hopes for where this new year will take us. I’m looking forward to saying goodbye to the “new normal.” Meanwhile I thought we could all use some warmth and comfort to cheer us along the way. Each painting of this year’s monthly miniature series will have the theme of “creature comforts”, such as food and drink that makes us feel warm and cozy.

Let’s start this year with a toast. I made you a pomegranate champagne cocktail. Pomegranates are a symbol of plenty, youthfulness, fertility and good luck. Combine that with champagne, overflowing with abundance and joy, and you have the perfect drink to welcome the new year.

Here’s my toast:

The last year has been both terrible and wonderful. Despite a calamitous year, I’ve had the rare privilege to begin painting as a full-time artist without also working a second full-time job. I could not have done it without you, so I propose a toast of thanks.

Your subscription to my newsletter cheers me along. Every time you share my work, you help me grow my audience. Every time you buy a painting, a print or a greeting card, you support me doing something I love for a living. So cheers, and thank you for your continued support. I wish you a new year that overflows with good luck, plenty, and joy!

  • Cheers! still life painting in the dutch still life tradidion by Rebecca Luncan detail

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Poison Garden, forest floor still life paitning for group exhibit

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Poison Garden, Antler Gallery, July 30th – August 23rd

Forgotten Garden, oil on aluminum, 9″ x 16″

In my “In Season” Monthly Miniature still life series, I studied and paid tribute to different artists of the Dutch golden age of still life paitning throught the year in which I completed that project. One of the artists I stumbled upon was Otto Mardeus van Schrieck. He created these incredibly detailed paintings that so perfectly contrasted the dark and light of the natural world. For that series I made a painting titled, “Forest Floor with Rabbits“. This painting was quite different than the others in the series that were more tradidional table top still life paintings. I think it was an important one to make for me to understand more fully the genere of still life in the 1600’s though.

I’d been toying with the idea of dedicating my next series of miniatures to “forest floor” paintings and decided on something different. When I got the invitation from Antler Gallery to participate in their Poison Garden exhibit I immediately knew exactly what I wanted to paint.

Years ago, I invited my neighbors foxglove flowers into my own garden when she was digging them up in fear that her dogs would eat them. The poisonous but beautiful flowers quickly bagan popping up in new places throught my garden and I encouraged them. When I had my son, however, I began to question that decision. Especilly since he loved foraging for different edible berries on his own. I began pulling them up, but there was no way I could get them all. The model for his painting is one of my survivors. My son still forages, but he’s a quick leaner and is very careful around the flowers. He actually held up a huge sheet of black paper behind the plant for me while I photographed it for reference for this paitning so that I could make the shadows and highlights more accuratly.

I included insects that are also poisonous, some with stings, others bites and I didn’t know this, but most butterflies are also toxic. Not that I’ve ever tried to eat one.

I hope you enjoy the painting and I hope you’ll go to the Antler Gallery website to see some of the other artists beautiful pieces for the exhibition.