The Wellfleet OysterFest

Wellfleet oysters and a shucking knife

I love oysters on the half shell. For me, eating oysters fresh from the sea and shucked on the spot is about as good as it gets. Wellfleet, here on Cape Cod, is renowned the world over for its delicious oysters, which are delicate, salty and sweet. They are fabulous just plain or with a fresh squeeze of tangy lemon juice. My favorite way to enjoy these little jewels is with a dollop of bright red, spicy tomato cocktail sauce and a bit of grated horseradish on top. The freshly shucked, icy cold oyster is awash in its bath of fresh, clean, briny Wellfleet Harbor water, which complements the flavor of the oyster, and helps the little goodie slide across the palate and down the throat (or "down the hatch" as we used to say, when I was a child). To read more about Wellfleet oysters, click here. And a New England news station did this video segment on the local industry.

This weekend, the charming town of Wellfleet, right here on Cape Cod, is hosting its 10th annual Wellfleet OysterFest, so naturellement, Jack and I just had to check it out. Now, you have to understand that it gets pretty darn quiet on the Cape as the fall months get colder, so I expected small crowds - mostly locals. We got there early, so that was pretty much the case in the first few hours. However, by noon, we were amazed at the popularity of this event. Apparently, as many as 15,000 people visit it each year, and this year was no exception, as far as we could tell. The event is incredibly well orchestrated, including shuttle buses taking people into town form parking areas at all of the town beaches.

The main attraction is, of course, raw oysters on the half shell, and booth after booth was set up with oystermen (and some women) shucking oysters, fresh from the harbor. There were also other kinds of raw shellfish, including cherrystones and littlenecks. Then there were booths cooking up local favorites like clam cakes, fishcakes, oyster stew, clam chowder, lobster bisque, and food for non-shellfish eaters, including sausages, pizza, even cotton candy... to each his own. Local breweries and Truro Vineyards (next door to Wellfleet) were selling libations. We partook of a dozen oysters, a couple of clam cakes, oyster stew and clam chowder - all sooooo out of this world!

Oysters (above) and clams (below)

 Jack snapped this shot of me when I wasn't paying attention.

 Participants of all ages

Recycling bins - Cape Cod style

The line for the soups at The Lighthouse Restaurant was long, but definitely worth the wait, as everyone standing in the line told us. They were not wrong. We got the clam chowder and oyster stew, but the lobster bisque also looked and smelled divine (next year)! The following pictures are of their booth, which was right in front of the restaurant, on Main Street.

The head chef of the Lighhouse was gently sauteing onions, as well as tomatoes, scallions and herbs for the oyster stew. Jack had a nice chat with the chef, and told him about our Drake who is working at the raw bar at Farallon, shucking many varieties of oysters, including Wellfleets. The chef kindly offered Drake a job if he ever wants one!

The aromas from this booth could be detected the moment we got off the shuttle bus - so tempting!

 Just look at all of the herbs floating in the oyster stew!

Happy Jack

Clam chowder (left) and oyster stew (right) are not exactly low cal, but the heavy cream in them is so sweet, it is a sin NOT to taste them.

Oyster stew, from The Lighthouse Restaurant, was loaded with oysters.

In addition to the food, there are tons of booths with artists and artisans selling their wares, including demonstrations, such as a man carving shorebirds out of wood, and really good live music.

Products for sale benefit environmental preservation efforts.

There are exhibits (like the one above) teaching adults and kids alike, about the various kinds of life to be found in the local waters. Other educational exhibits and lectures are held throughout the two-day event, including gourmet oyster and clam tasting with wine pairing, cooking demos by chefs, historical info on the shellfishing industry, guided tours of the estuaries, including the chance to find and then cook your own oysters with an oysterman. Some of these events cost money, but most are free. (All the money raised here is nonprofit, by the way.)

By far the biggest draw of the entire festival is the hotly-contested oyster shucking contest. Entrants shuck as many oysters as they can in an allotted amount of time, while the crowds watch and cheer. Below are some pictures of last year's contest that I found on the festival website:

 

 The winner!

Local flavor includes some fun characters, as the following pictures show:

 

Wellfleet oysters are flown around the world, to arrive at raw bars in restaurants only hours hours after they are harvested. We will be eating dinner at the raw bar at Farallon, in San Francisco, in a couple of days, where we look forward to comparing imported Wellfleet oysters with some of the local California varieties. (Although after paying $15/dozen at the Wellfleet OysterFest, we may find the West Coast price of these little gems a bit hard to stomach!)

If you go to the Wellfleet OysterFest, make sure to arrive early. As Jack and I left town, the traffic crawling toward Wellfleet was as heavy as on any day in the height of the summer season. But don't let that deter you by any means...it is absolutely worth every minute of the wait.

Vines and Wines on Both Coasts

I am heading to the West coast for a visit to San Francisco and then a drive down the coast to Rancho Arroyo Grande, home of my cousins' fairly new winemaking establishment, Conway Family Wines. I will have so much to write about upon my return (think FOOD and WINE!) I am so excited to see, first-hand, the vineyards and find out more about their winemaking process, which includes tremendous respect for the local terroir and surrounding area, as well as making wines with as little chemical intervention as possible. Stay tuned for more write-ups about this to come soon.

The Conways' two labels, Deep Sea and Rancho Arroyo Grande

Another wonderful friend and relatively new winemaker, on the East coast, is also creating outstanding wines, with similar respect for the land, the environment and the winemaking process. McCall Wines on the North Fork of Long Island has a similar sensibility to that of my cousins. I wrote about one delicious and fun weekend there, in a post here, over a year ago. Since then, owner Russ McCall has installed a windmill to provide clean and sustainable energy and added Charolais beef cattle to his estate.

What got me thinking about these two wine producers at once is a terrific blog post by Martha Stewart on McCall Wines and Ranch, just yesterday. Martha's sister and brother-in-law, Laura and Randy Plimpton, have put together a beautiful slide show of the McCall Vineyards and Charolais Ranch. Randy's sister, Nicola Plimpton, is engaged to Russ McCall. You've seen them all in my blog before, as well as Lisa Plimpton and Dan Brewer, another sister and brother-in-law of Nicola. (I don't usually mention my close friends' last names in my blog, but since Martha did, I figure it's okay, this time. Everyone in the world reads The Martha Blog!!)

If you are ever on Long Island, check out the newly opened tasting room at McCall Wines. It has been made out of the former horse stables on the property, and is a rustic and friendly spot to taste McCall wines. Laura has posted great pictures of it on The Martha Blog. Here are just two:

Russ and Nicola at McCall Wines tasting room

I'm hoping Jack and I will get a chance to visit McCall Wines' tasting room this fall, after our California trip, so I can tell you more about it myself. (While there is not yet a tasting room at Rancho Arroyo Grande, plans for one are currently in the works.)

Okay now - really - why am I MOST excited to get to San Francisco? I can't wait to see my "baby" Drake, our youngest son who is studying at the Culinary Institute of America, in the Hudson Valley, but has been doing his six-month externship at Farallon Restaurant in SF, which has been an amazing experience for him. 

Drake in the kitchen at Farallon

Drake loves the restaurant and the city, and I'm looking forward to experiencing both through his eyes. We will be eating, not just at Farallon, but also at Chez Panisse, and other culinary treasures, so I promise to take lots of photos, and write in detail after the meals. 

Trompe l'Oeil Painting - A Brief History

Now that you've seen some of my trompe l'oeil painting, in my last post, let me introduce you to some incredible-holycow-knock-your-sock-off works by other artists. Art history is full of examples of trompe l'oeil painting, going back as far as Roman pompeii. In fact, the genre has never faded from popularity since the Renaissance, and has been used for both fine art paintings, as well as murals in homes, castles, churches and other public buildings, for centuries. As a child, I remember seeing trompe l'oeil paintings and wishing I could do something similar "some day". I first studied this type of painting when I was in college (one of my majors being Art History). Then studying abroad, and traveling throughout Europe, I was absolutely taken with actual examples of trompe l'oeil painting on walls, ceilings, building facades, etc., and I have been in love ever since!

The art of trompe l'oeil is painstakingly slow. It is the artist's meticulous attention to detail, including light and shadow, that make two-dimensional paintings appear to be 3D. In the 1960's, artists like Richard Estes and Chuck Close began experimenting with photorealism and then came superrealism - all basically the same thing - trompe l'oeil painting, to fool the eye of the beholder into perceiving the work of art as real life.

HISTORIC EXAMPLES OF THE ART

One of my favorite examples of this art form is Escaping Criticism (above) by the Spanish artist, Pere Borrel del Caso, in 1874. It incorporates a tongue-in-cheek attitude that is present in many trompe l'oeil paintings. Because the artist is trying to fool the viewer's eye, he or she often injects an element of fun into the fooling. In other words, the trompe l'oeil artist deliberately attempts to trick the viewer, but then makes sure the viewer realizes it, too.

The Bachelor's Drawer, by Dutch painter, John Haberle, c. 1890, depicts everyday objects that remain popular subjects of trompe l'oeil paintings to this day: photos, postcards, money, playing cards, stamps, tickets and other personal items. Following are more examples of this charming theme:

Edward Collier, c. 1699

Johann Heinrich Fussli, 1750

Cornelius Gijsbrechts, 1671

Cornelius Gijsbrechts, 1675

Michelangelo Meucci, 1840-90

Trompe l'oeil also exists beyond the realm of the canvas and plaster surface. Here is a late 19th c. French majolica plate.

MURALS - OLD & NEW

Painted murals on walls - both interior (including ceilings) and exterior - have been popular since trompe l'oeil was invented. In fact the first known examples of the style were on the walls of villas at Pompeii, so it's safe to assume that they go back into dates B.C.

Contemporary French ceiling

Above two, Bunny Mellon's greenhouse at Oak Springs with trompe l’oeil murals by Fernand Renard.

Above four, by Graham Rust. He is my favorite muralist. I have all of his books and find his work to be so inspirational.

Garage door

Building in Tehran

Mark Harper

Two above, by Michael Potter

Building facade in Brussels, covering the exterior of the new Magritte Museum before it opened. According to one of my readers, Hugo H., behind the "curtain" you can see Magritte's probably most famous painting, "Her Rijk Der Lichten" (The Empire of Lights).

John Pugh

Yannick Geugan

Ceiling detail by Yves Lanthier

TROMPE L'OEIL TODAY

There are so many living artists doing incredible trompe l'oeil work. Here is just a small sampling of some of these talents:

Two paintings above, by Koo Schadler

Five above, by David Brega

Donald Clapper has done a series of paintings entitled "Which stamp is real?"

Three above, by Miriam Escofet

Three above, by Michael Theise

Two above, by Robert Jackson

Two above by Richard Newell

Five above, by Sydney Bella Sparrow

Michael James Riddet

EXAMPLES OF PHOTOREALISM

Two paintings above, by Richard Estes

Two paintings above, by Chuck Close

CONTEMPORARY TROMPE L'OEIL THAT'S WAY OUTSIDE THE BOX

Edgar Mueller does incredible street art that is seriously mind twisting. (Two examples, above)

Above two pavement art pictures by Julian Beever.

The exterior of a building in Paris - WOW!

Guido Daniele paints on human hands and bodies, for advertising, as well as fine art.

* * * 

There are numerous books on trompe l'oeil - of varying qualities. Here are some I think are worth reading:

A Trick of the Eye: Trompe l'Oeil Masterpieces, by Eckhard Hollmann

Trompe l'Oeil Panels, by Yannick Guegan

The Handbook of Painted Decoration, by Yannick Guegan

The Painted House, by Graham Rust

Decorative Designs, by Graham Rust

The Painted Ceiling, by Graham Rust

Brand new: Revisiting the Painted House, by Graham Rust

One thing I appreciate about the four Graham Rust books, above, is that they do not duplicate each other. They are all loaded with fresh ideas and pictures.

The Art of Trompe l'Oeil Murals, by Yves Lanthier

The Art of Faux, by Pierre Finkelstein

Artifice & Illusion - The Art and Writing of Samuel Van Hoogstraten, by Celeste Brusati

The Rhetoric of Perspective: Realism and Illusionism in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Still Life Painting, by Hanneke Grootenboer

The Murals of John Pugh - Beyond Trompe l'Oeil, by Kevin Bruce