After much gazing and drooling... 
Over the Flickr chocolate photos of Princess_of_llyr of Christopher Norman Chocolates 
I hopped on the 5 and made it downtown to see for myself...
Well, really I was looking for painting material/ "reasearch"as usual /comme habitude...
A pretty well-lite shop at 60 New Street in the Financial District.
With an enticing counter you could spend hours contemplating...
"Australian Baby Ginger"!Whatever that is sounds good to me :)
Their specialty are unique hand painted "mosaic" chocolates in many flavors - lemon thyme, orange caramel, Green Tea, Framboise, Pomegranate etc.
There are lots of Valentine hearts bien sur - petit fours...
Hand painted hearts in all sizes - big and bite size..
And their special "Tiger Heart Box"- "a passionate collection of hand made chocolates and truffles" with white chocolate, caramel, cherries, espresso, cinnamon caradmom, passion fruit, gianduja - all melt in your mouth on contact!
The Christopher Norman chocolate factory is right behind the shop, so every thing is "fresh off the presses"..
The only way to get better at painting chocolate (not exactly a piece of cake as I've mentioned in the past) is to keep on painting chocolate. This entails some hazards and Little Bear is here to help out. He may even get a chance to come to Paris for further required chocolate research.
THANKS Little Bear! And THANKS princess_of_llyr
Their specialty are unique hand painted "mosaic" chocolates in many flavors - lemon thyme, orange caramel, Green Tea, Framboise, Pomegranate etc.
There are lots of Valentine hearts bien sur - petit fours...
Hand painted hearts in all sizes - big and bite size..
And their special "Tiger Heart Box"- "a passionate collection of hand made chocolates and truffles" with white chocolate, caramel, cherries, espresso, cinnamon caradmom, passion fruit, gianduja - all melt in your mouth on contact!
The Christopher Norman chocolate factory is right behind the shop, so every thing is "fresh off the presses".. The only way to get better at painting chocolate (not exactly a piece of cake as I've mentioned in the past) is to keep on painting chocolate. This entails some hazards and Little Bear is here to help out. He may even get a chance to come to Paris for further required chocolate research.THANKS Little Bear! And THANKS princess_of_llyr
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!!!
Your chocolates look amazing, Carol! Happy Valentine's Day to you! That shop must've smelled fabulous.
ReplyDeletesue
Carol, those beautiful stripy hearts in red, l LOVE THEM they look beautiful and they would look great with little bird.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't a cake shop and choclate is in two makes only so l am so happy you are here to give me fix of good chocalate, thank you so much and l love the painting and little bird is sweet,
Jill
These are FABULOUS!!!! I spy the violet. Superb. I really have to love those chocolatiers. I would love to be in on some of their development meetings...I would have to try the ginger too. And did they have some orange and chocolate..ahh, sheer bliss today my friend. Very finely done.
ReplyDeleteAll best.
Jan
Do as Leonardo would do:
ReplyDeleteStudy the anatomy of chocolates!
Take for instance a chocolate kiss, carefully bite off the outer layer, and work yourself to the core of the subject at hand, all the while pausing for clinical renderings of the inner structure. If this task becomes tedious, take a break, and read the milk chocolate tasting notes in yesterday's New York Times.
Happy Valentine's day!
thanks for the peak inside Carol..that is a spot to add to my Google chocalate map of NYC.
ReplyDeleteHappy Valentine's day! Your new chocolates are stunning! Quo non ascendet?
ReplyDeleteOH YUM!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great Valentines day find!!!
MErci
Annie
Happy Valentine's day to the artist that adds chocolate bonbons to our life almost everyday!
ReplyDeleteJust visiting your blog sends my carbohydrate count off the charts - but it's worth it!
ReplyDeleteoh your chocolates you painted look so real. you have gotten VERY good at painting chocolate, so I guess practice does make perfect. :) Wonderful post today.
ReplyDeleteLooks like blogger isn't working today, at least not for me. I didn't get your post in my email box this morning. or anything else blogger related it seems. ;(
one of each please! I'm so glad that you found the little bear :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful chocolates and beautiful paintings. You are so whimsical!
ReplyDeleteHi CRIS -
ReplyDeleteyes I didn't get my PB Blogger subscription today either.
Blogger is out getting chocolates I guess...
Il arrive
(Fr. for S_ _ _ happens)
I would have to play the paper wrappers like velvet against satin, but make the papers a shade step lighter than the chocolate yet darker than the shadows.
ReplyDeleteThe warm/ cool thing has to make it work.
But then you have to expect that the wrapper and the chocolate will tend to read as the dominant shape...not easy at all.
I see more red tint in the paperwrappers.
It looks like you went blue maybe...
I did notice them and was thinking that you were pushing yourself in a good direction with the more saturated colors you have been playing with.
The crispness that you have going works in the wrappers, but you have the shadows darker than the papers...probably intentionally for your composition.
The bon bons are straight out fantastic.
The Valentin hearts look delicious. Did you test them? I did not biy chocolates for oday, but I made a tarte Tatin! I know it sounds strange!
ReplyDeletegood work on those chocolates. They even look shiny, amazing watercolor work.
ReplyDeleteIt's a difficult but an interesting challenge.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways very simple.
You have to play the textures and temperatures off each other because the subjects are so close in color and value.
One is shinier and reflective - the other matte but a little crisp.
You don't want to loose the bonbon in a dark blob of paper against your white ground, but you do want the rich redder brown of the paper.
You have to have steps of value between the bonbon, the paper , and the shadow that change in value and temperature.
They all have the same color range and a narrow value separation so you make the 3 more independent of one another with subtle but selective shifts of warm to cool, dark and light while still being cohesive as a whole.
But you know all that. :)
Your chocolate paintings are enticing....
ReplyDeletethey are actually better looking than
the real thing! How do you do that.
A word to the wise: If I were you , I'd keep a very close eye on Mr. Little Brown Bear. The way he's eyeballing that chocolate makes me think he's about to do some of his own "research" on chocolate!
ReplyDeleteps Please check my Flickr site: I've been extremely honored!
Yes, yes. On with the research I say. It is a tremendous sacrifice having to purchase all these expensive wonderful chocolates, but think of how your experience in eating...er...I mean...painting chocolates is being honed!
ReplyDeleteThe sweetest Post ever! I have tasted them and it is hard to put the taste into words..I know why you paint them! Happy Valentines Day!! hugs NG
ReplyDeleteI am heading to New York next week and I am so looking forward to eating and seeing so much! Any suggestions for the perfect hot chocolate, afternoon tea, and cakes and pastries would be very appreciated. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLove you
Thanks for sharing so much with us.
Love all your photographs and YOU
Hi Carol! Happy to see that your blog is running again. I had linked you on my blog and then discovered that all the posts disappeared. From time to time I have visited yo and only now do I see you back on line. I love your beatiful paintings! Daniela
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome Carol! The paintings came out gorgeous! How did you like the taste? ;)
ReplyDeleteYour blog is exquisite torture. I'm trying desperately to tame my chocolate cravings tonight so I thought I'd do a little blog visiting to take my mind off of it and what do I find...photos of chocolate, mouth-watering paintings of chocolate...eeek. I surrender! Your paintings are really glowing these days.
ReplyDelete