What makes you happy? In graduate school, Lara Isbell was fascinated with the human form and attempting to master this type of figurative art. However many of her critiques, both professors and other students, felt that my paintings were too cold or impersonal.Lara recalls, "A favorite professor at that time recognized I was feeling down and losing my desire to create. He asked me a pretty simple question What makes you happy?" Her first response was her dog Belle who had been her companion throughout college and then in Chicago for graduate school. Lara remembers, "He said, Paint that. Paint your dog, which sounded insane at the time. This set me on the course of painting, literally hundreds of portraits of Belle; followed by a lucrative business in pet portraits in the early 2000s."
The next chapter of Lara's painting career, had her going back to the same question that professor asked, What makes you happy? "At this time of my life, I had begun my career in the wine industry, constantly surrounded by delicious wine, interesting people, winemakers, fascinating chefs with their stories behind their creative process," Lara remembers. This period also coincided with the advent of the iPhone, giving everyone a quality camera in our pocket. Lara began taking pictures, like everyone else at the time, of all my meals, whether out at a restaurant or prepared at home. This became the inspiration for the second chapter of her painting career, which was focused mainly on wine as the subject.
Her current chapter began a year ago, once again she asked that question, What makes you happy? Working through my empty nest syndrome, Lara created collages based on empty nests with her children's art saved over the years. Then she began going through all of the photographs she had taken for the past 18 years, some 20,000 photos. An obvious theme appeared, food. "The amount of material I found once I cataloged all my photos of food that I had either eaten or cooked myself was slightly overwhelming! It inspired me to use this as the basis for this newest series." Lara continues, "All the inspiration for the work that I do now has been based on what has brought me joy over the past 18 years, food ultimately, makes me very happy!"
"Because my paintings are based on photographs that I’ve taken, it allows me to relive the experience of either creating that dish at home, the joy of sharing a meal with friends, a successful wine dinner or simply beautiful raw ingredients. In short, they are snippets of memories that make me happy. Initially going through those pictures was a sort of therapy for me after my son Eli left for college."
Her first food to ever paint was cheese. She says, "When I was in my phase of painting wine glasses, I painted a lot of cheese. Which meant, I was eating a lot of cheese, which brought me joy!"
The most challenging food you ever painted, artichokes. "Artichokes are particularly interesting subject matter, they look so different on the inside than they do on the outside. Much like their flavor, their beauty lies in their intricate simplicity."
Lara would like to continue to create epicurean art based on her experiences but hopes to include commissions of favorite meals that others have shared with friends and family, knowing true foodies have hundreds of pictures on their phone that are just waiting to be explored.
Lara recently retired from a career in the wine business, where she did hundreds if not thousands of wine tastings, wine dinners, seminars, and classes. She now enjoys working in her studio, volunteering with various community organizations, spending time with friends that usually revolves around food, cooking with her husband, and entertaining her three rescue dogs, who inevitably beg from the table.
So where does Lara love to eat around town? "It’s important to me to support locally owned restaurants here. A couple of my favorite dishes are oysters at Sea Salt, cioppino at Mazzara‘s, the neatball sub at Stanlieos, avocado toast at Good Company Café, green bean burrito at Bandito Burrito, and sushi with martinis at Surin."
Her favorite meal of all time is Alpine Cheese Fondue and steamed artichokes with lemon butter. "I’ve had the same birthday meal my entire life, it’s an odd one, and those that know me could recite it off the top of their heads," she laughs. "However, my favorite place for a meal in the world has to be La Crepe Nanou in New Orleans- it’s always perfectly satisfying."
You can learn more learn more about Lara's work and purchase work @laraisbell.fineart on instagram and her work is displayed for sale on the first floor of Railroad Station Antiques & Interiors.