Joel Penkman makes highly realistic paintings of food. Born and raised in New Zealand, she studied graphic design at Canterbury University’s School of Fine Art. After graduation, she moved to the UK where she began working as a freelance artist and designer. “I love that food can define a population and contribute so much to national and local identity,” she said.
Her paintings are simple still-life studies with clean white backgrounds, which helps the viewer concentrate on the main focus of the picture. Most of Penkman’s paintings are brightly colored and showcase the foods’ textures, made by using a unique technique called egg-tempera, which requires a lot of work. Penkman grinds all her paint from powdered pigments and stores them as wet pastes until they are ready for use. Then, she mixes the paste with egg yolk and deionized water.
Take a look at some of her works
