Week #42, Ink & Brush: Capsicum

Dusti Bongé, Penworthy - Easy Glide Quality Writing Tablet - p.17, 1984, ink & wash on paper, 9” x 6”.

This week we have another example of Dusti Bongé’s ink and brush technique applied to depict a very familiar item, in this case a quotidian ingredient in local creole cuisine, the bell pepper (capsicum). Again, like in the case of the strawberries, we do not associate bell peppers with Chinese nor Japanese art. And here too, the reason is most likely due to the fact that bell peppers originally come from the Americas. They did not get introduced to European culture until 1493, during the fateful years of the European colonization of the Americas, and later to the Far East. Supposedly, bell peppers didn’t get introduced into Japanese kitchens until after WWII, and eventually became a food staple in the1960s.

This work shows several peppers both standing up and lying on their sides, allowing Dusti to capture their many contours, bumps and indents from multiple angles. She shows their curious yet sumptuous forms and makes them come alive, with a minimum of brushstrokes.

Like most of the other sheets in this writing tablet, this one is a page of quick studies, not a total composition. Dusti used this tablet to hone her ink and brush skills. Even though she had been an artist for over 50 years by then, it shows her innate understanding that no matter your artistic accolades, if you take on a new medium you have to have the humility to practice it. 

Interestingly, when she first started painting in the 1930s, one of her recurring exercises was sketching still lifes of fruit and vegetables to hone her representational skills. Here she is, so many years later, sketching those fruits and vegetables to practice a new skill. Surely, in all of these cases, these veggies wound up in a delicious home cooked meal like a hearty Jambalaya or Gumbo.