Wayne Thiebaud inspired Mixed Media
Best known for his paintings of cakes, pies, pastries, and toys, Wayne Thiebaud hadn’t planned on becoming a visual artist. He apprenticed as a cartoonist at Walt Disney studios and intended to work as a commercial illustrator, but his friend Robert Mallary turned him towards a career in fine art. It is not difficult to detect the influence that this commercial experience had on his later paintings attributed to Pop Art; Thiebaud's characteristic work displays consumer objects such as pies and cakes as they are seen in drug store windows. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colours to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included. Objects are simplified into basic units but appear varied using seemingly minimal means. He remains best known for his still lifes of confections - sometimes painted from his own memories - which he considers interpretations of “Americanness.” In his works, objects and their shadows are characteristically outlined in multiple colours, creating a visual effect Thiebaud calls akin to vibration.
The students in Virtuoso class took inspiration from Thiebaud’s painting “Three doughnuts” to make their own version of the painting and practise their printing skills in the process. We started off by painting a piece of paper with a paintbrush in blue and learned about repetition, mass production and pop culture. Next the students used pool noodles with round shape to print rings on the paper that represented the base of the doughnuts. They made sure to use all of the colours that were offered to “mass produce their prints” and make a whimsical composition of rings in a random order. Next they used curve shaped pool noodles to print on top of the doughnuts and a little bit off centre for a 3d effect. They drew the shadow of each doughnut with an oil pastel and their doughnut prints were then complete.