Matisse Hero Worship
Harmony in Red or Red Room   

My Interpretation
Dim Sum in Red Room

This is my favorite painting. It is by Henrí Matisse, titled Harmony in Red or Red Room, and is in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.  I find it inspiring because it is a riot of color. There is nothing shy about Matisse's use of color and pattern! I have used his painting in many of my own. Try to find it in Apples and Silver, and You Will Be Surrounded By Luxury--(twice)

This is my attempt to duplicate Matisse's painting in my own style. If you look carefully, you can see the same garden scene through the lace curtains. The painting is 60" x 65", and is in a private collection in Indianapolis.

The Dinner Table

Maria's Dinner Table

This is an earlier Matisse painting called The Dinner Table. I was surprised when I first saw this painting, especially when I realized that it is the same painting he did nearly 10 years later as Harmony in Red. He's used the same wine carafes and fruit bowls. It looks to be the same figure, too, only with a little hat. Unfortunately, the wild wallpaper is missing! Matisse's wonderful use of light and shadow, creating the sparkle I love in a painting inspired me to consider doing another re-creation in my own style, similar to what I had done with Dim Sum in Red Room. The idea stayed in my head for two or three years until events, people, and the right props all came together and I was able to visualize the painting you see to the right, Maria's Dinner Table.

The painting Dim Sum in Red Room is a precursor to this painting, and you can see similarities in the wallpaper and some of the serving pieces. A Georgian table would not typically be set with the arrangement of flowers, but I added them to invoke the feel of the Matisse painting. I especially wanted to re-create the illusion of strong light coming in through the window, just as Matisse did in both of his paintings.