The Recipe for Hyperrealistic Art
In South India, a very talented artist paints delicious dishes, serving a special fusion of food and art. Varuna Sridhar, a young hyperrealism artist, went viral on Twitter for her painting of filter coffee. With exquisite detail, the painting was depicted in such a real way that people speculated it to be a photograph. She shares her art and dreams with Ithraeyat.
Sridhar is the daughter of an artist. “I was raised with art all around me,” she shares. “Picking up a paintbrush at two years old has given me more than 19 years of experience in the art industry. I have held over 13 exhibitions by the time I was 13 years old.” With a head start on her art career, she received awards at a young age and was certified as the Youngest Certified Corel Designer in Asia Pacific Region when she was eight years old, and she still holds the title to this day.
“I started a new series a year ago of hyper realistic food paintings, mainly South Indian food.” Even though she paints hyper realistic art, her growth to fame online for her filter coffee piece was surreal. It gathered more than 60,000 likes and generated buzz on major news outlets. “Since then, I have painted more hyper realistic food paintings like masala dosa with around 35 thousand likes!” She shares. “People always say they can't believe it's a painting!”
Courtesy of the artist.
Food is an emotion. The items I pick to paint always invoke a sense of nostalgia in the viewer and when painted hyper-realistically they feel like they can almost smell the food through the painting!
I spent a long time on the painting to get the bubbles right to be realistic. My intention was for the audience to feel like they can catch the signature aroma of the filter coffee just by looking at my painting.
Courtesy of the artist.
Yes, I have a healthy relationship with food. I love my home-cooked food more than anything!
My mom is Konkani and my Dad is Tamil, so I grew up on Konkani and Tamil food together. I also love Italian food, but I haven’t started painting international food yet.
I think the connection of mixing things to create something beautiful. In food we mix ingredients and with art we mix paint.
Courtesy of the artist.
I love cooking. I used to go for cooking workshops as a kid, I even learnt how to make pizza and pasta dough from scratch!
Cooking is an art form. Cooking is not only pleasing to our eyes but also to the palate. The visual representation of cooking makes it artistic as well.
I have had this ambition since I was very young. Ever since they taught me who Picasso and van Gogh were, I also wanted to be written down in history for my contribution to art. The process of creating art and seeing the end result is what drives me; it makes me want to create more art every day.
I want to dabble in realism and maybe try to incorporate mixed media as well. I want to try to make it 3D by using sculpture paste.
Hopefully soon! I have it in my vision board.
The process of painting something so realistic and detailed to the point where the viewer says, “It looks like a photograph!” This compliment makes my day every time and pushes me to create more!
To follow Varuna’s journey through the arts, follow her on
Instagram @eighteenpercentgray
and Twitter @VforVendakka_.
