Copyright Lorraine Plaxico

With so much color and variety, it is easy to get lost in these markets, which is exactly what Lorraine Plaxico did one day when she was looking for something to draw. Without the intention to start a new line of artwork, she stumbled into the Asheville, NC farmers market, one of most impressive local food scenes in the country. Entranced by the colors and shapes, she set up her pad and pastels and just started making quick sketches of the booths there.

Soon, people were stopping by to admire her work and ask if her sketches were for sale. Knowing an opportunity when she saw one, Lorraine, whose background is in architectural illustration, made an arrangement with the farmers market to do more drawings and built up a portfolio of sketches.

Looking for something to draw one morning, she had inadvertently become the artist of the local food movement.

Lorraine initially contacted Farm to Table looking for people who might be interested in her artwork. Having never realized how artists can be just as integral to local food as farmers and cooks, I wanted to get her story and so we arranged an interview.

Still Life Waiting to Happen

Copyright Lorraine Plaxico

Lorraine is soft-spoken, but her voice exudes energy and enthusiasm for her art and for fresh produce. She draws buildings for architecture projects and landscapes for fun, neither of which are very similar to vegetable booths. Nevertheless, as soon as she walked into the farmers market, she saw the potential for great art: she called the vegetable stands “still life waiting to happen.”

That is a good way to describe Lorraine’s renditions of local produce: happening still lifes. Where most paintings of piles of fruits and vegetables are dry and exceedingly detailed, Lorraine’s farmers market series is full of life and energy. She prefers to draw fast and focus on the energy of the scene rather than its intricacies, which she felt was appropriate for locally grown produce, which we all agree is more alive and full of life than most other kinds of produce. Her artwork swirls and swells as if the vegetables she draws are still growing or caught so soon after being picked that they are still coasting to a steady state.

Her drawings are distinctly approachable. Just as farmers markets vegetables are not just for the gourmet and the connoisseur, Lorraine’s artwork is unpretentious. As she described it, it’s “not anything real highbrow; everyone appreciates fruits and vegetables.”

So Real You Can Reach out and Touch It, or Wear It

When she saw how popular her artwork was, she thought of ways to package it for people. Farmers received free prints of her drawings of their booths, a fine treat considering the pride many of them take in their vegetable displays. She started selling them at an Asheville restaurant that partners with local farmers for their fresh foods (coincidentally also named Homegrown, www.slowfoodrightquick.com). She has also had her work printed onto t-shirts and tote bags that are perfect for carrying fresh produce from the farmers market.

Copyright Lorraine Plaxico

Lorraine’s line of farmers market artwork, called By Hand (in contrast to some architecture drawing done on computers) has a full line of vegetable-emblazoned products, ranging from simple prints and notecards, to shirts, bags, and placemats. If you’re looking for a sturdy bag for your produce, one that proudly displays your love of all things locally grown, definitely check out her work. The bags are made of tough material (all recycled in keeping with the sustainability principles of local food) with the artwork printed right onto the canvas. It actually feels like you’re carrying around an old oil painting, so fitting is the medium. The shirts are organic cotton and have a soft rugged feel to them. Both bag and shirt have the words “Home Grown” printed vividly beneath the art. Wear or carry them with pride.

I had a chance to see some of Lorraine’s work up close. There are eight images to choose from, all featuring collections of fruits and/or vegetables. Some of them feature an entire table, some feature just a few select produce items, and two focus on just one variety of produce. All of them display bright colors and gorgeous layouts, and range in style from nearly realism to almost impressionism, always maintaining a kind of casual sketchiness that brings these farmers’ stands alive.

The pastel medium begs for a thick canvas, so the shirts and bags display it well. The notecards, made of a thin cardstock, don’t seem to be able to sustain the deep colors as well, but they are still a great way to send a quick note or thoughtful letter (and they come with envelopes). The matted prints are vibrant, eggplants and zucchini practically jumping out of the frame. Hung around the kitchen, they are an authentic homage to real, locally grown food.

Lorraine told me that she is hoping to get more involved in the Farm to Table movement by expanding her portfolio of farmers market prints to include more seasons, and she has worked with the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project as well (we ran an article from them last year). She said she finds that drawing locally grown produce suits her better than drawing buildings and is hoping to move in that direction with her artwork and business.

In the meantime, you can check out Lorraine’s farmers market artwork here and her architectural illustrations here.