Artist Spotlight: Joel Penkman

Joel Penkman is a New Zealand-born artist (now based in the UK) who brings a clean, graphic style to the art of food painting. Unlike artists who use thick, messy oil paint, Penkman uses a very old and difficult medium called egg tempera.

He is famous for his "taxonomy" style paintings of nostalgic treats—rows of biscuits, ice lollies, and retro sweets arranged neatly on plain, neutral backgrounds. His work is less about the "mess" of eating and more about the memory and design of the food we love.

What to look for:

• Colour (Tints and Shades): Penkman uses very subtle value changes to make his objects look three-dimensional. Look at a simple ice lolly in his work: he uses tints (the pure colour mixed with white) on the front face to show the light, and slight shades (the colour mixed with a darker value) on the sides to show the form turning away. The transition is often seamless.

• Paint Application: In contrast to the thick "impasto" of artists like Wayne Thiebaud, Penkman’s application is smooth, matte, and opaque. He applies the paint in thin, flat layers. You won't see heavy brushstrokes; instead, the surface looks almost like a screen print or a graphic design, emphasizing the simple geometry of the food.

• Use of Cast Shadows: Because he paints on plain, empty backgrounds, the cast shadow is the most important part of the composition. Notice how he paints the shadow with a hard edge close to the object and a soft, blurred edge further away. This use of value anchors the object and stops it from looking like it is floating in space.