By Lyn Farrell
Although I am a member of PSC, I am also president of the Pikes Peak Pastel Society—a smaller pastel society in the Pikes Peak region. As such, I am always looking for ways to engage our members in satisfying and challenging pastel painting projects.
One of our favorite restaurants in Colorado Springs is Marigolds Café and Bakery. It has an amazing and beautiful selection of desserts for which it is famous around the city. The desserts are even served in the Garden of the Gods at the Trading Post. My husband and I became friendly with the restaurant owner, and for a long time, I eyed the desserts with my artist’s eyes and thought about how much fun it would be to paint them. Since we often get the desserts to take home at the end of a meal, I decided to try it. I painted the key lime tart in a small square format. We framed it and took it into the restaurant one time in April when we were going for a meal. We spoke to him about my pastel group painting their desserts, and showed him the painting of the key lime tart. He became very enthusiastic about the project and agreed that if we painted them, he would hang them in the restaurant as a permanent exhibition.
With that start, I announced to our pastel artists that this was an opportunity for those who were interested in painting one of Marigold’s desserts and to have it hanging in the restaurant. Nineteen artists responded and agreed to paint a dessert. My husband and I bought the desserts and photographed them in my still life setup at home. We then distributed the photos to the artists, along with the sanded paper that was pre-cut to the correct size.
Once the paintings were finished, we framed them and hung them in the banquet room of the restaurant. (Although the room is called “the banquet room”, it is actually used every day for restaurant patrons.)
After the paintings were hung we had a dinner to celebrate the “opening” of our exhibit. We had around 45 people turn out for the dinner, including the artists and their family members.
The owners allowed us to hang a sign with our name and website address on it to let restaurant patrons know who the artists are and how to reach us. There is also a QR code on the sign that takes the viewer directly to a page with photos of the paintings and the name of the artist that painted each dessert.
Although the paintings themselves are not for sale, anyone interested can ask a particular artist to paint something for them. The point of the exercise is to make our pastel society more familiar in the area and to give our artists something to feel proud of and to show their friends.
We have been to the restaurant several times since the paintings were installed, and wait staff and owners tell us every time that the paintings receive a great reception all the time. “People use them instead of the menu,” they tell us.
It was overall a wonderful experience for the restaurant and for our pastel society, and we are looking for more things in town to paint!