Today, I’m sharing these thematically simple paintings by British artist Neil Carroll. All of them depict everyday kitchen objects against a dark background. Many of them are quick sketches that likely didn’t take more than a few hours to complete (most canvases are about 6″ wide, give or take). Carroll has turned this into a steady output, and online, you can find hundreds of similar yet distinct paintings, all in a consistent style.
But what’s so special about a painting of an apple or a lemon with side lighting on a dark background? It’s practically a student sketch—art school students have piles of these gathering dust in the back of their closets. Yet once you gather at least a dozen of these uniform paintings, completed in a consistent style, suddenly it becomes “real” art, and the artist is lauded for carving out their niche. The more they create, the more firmly they establish themselves in that niche.
It’s a straightforward formula: do what you enjoy and remain consistent in your style and approach.
What’s also captivating about such simple objects is observing how the artist distinguishes between what’s significant and what’s not. I’ve gleaned a lot of intriguing insights and now I’m eager to try my hand at it having studied Carroll’s techniques. So, expect some ketchup paintings from me soon.
Posts like this are grouped under the hashtag #artrauflikes, and all 117 of them can be found on beinginamerica.com in the “Art Rauf Likes” section (unlike Facebook, which forgets—or neglects—almost half).
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 