The Colour of Flavour

Hello everyone I was invited to be the art curator for JTTS. I hope to bring your attention to art from downunder and I welcome this opportunity to observe the creativity blossoming on this side of the world.

Although there is a long tradition of multisensory immersion in Polynesian cultural performance I presupposed a scarcity of synaesthetic art in NZ galleries. However within two weeks my visits to galleries revealed several exhibitions of work relating to synaesthesia, and in particular Nicola Bennet’s ‘The Colour of Flavour’at ARTIS Gallery , September 2025.

https://www.artisgallery.co.nz/artists/nicola-bennett/

In her paintings the shapes hover within layers of transparent colour, giving the impression of layers of sensory experience, indistinct/distinct, appearing/disappearing. The paintings opened with conveying taste but then directed my musings inwards to my own experiences and memories of the phenomenal transformation and enhancement of flavour of raw ingredients in recipes and cooking.

Bennet’s also work reminded me of Fo.am whose art journeys start and end at the dinner table “Growing Worlds at the Scale of the Dinner Table” linking people scattered across regions and time zones… ‘Against a backdrop of systemic turbulence and interrupted mobility, a thin trail of hope signposts the delicate but vital potentials of translocal kinship networks’.

Bennet states that the experience of flavour with its relationship to smell, can’t be sustained but translating it into patterns and layers of paint allows it to continually repeat itself.

I contacted Nicola and asked her more about her work:

● When did you first start conveying flavour sensations through painting?

I did my masters in fine art 19 years ago, my thesis was on the Sensory and sensual qualities of the handmade object’ so I was taking about the senses swapping over and going into haptic responses. But that was with wax and glass objects. I didn’t start painting about flavour until 10 years ago.

● How did this series evolve?

Food has always been a big part of my life, my mum is an incredible cook and learnt early on that cooking for people brought happiness. I also spent time in Italy and France where food is often at the heart of family interactions. I think it first started with Nigella Lawson and the term people used for her cooking ‘food porn’ I wanted to explore what this actually meant – eating with the eyes etc. When I was in front of painting I really liked I found my mouth watering. Which I found odd because there was no food about to be eaten. But the colour, texture, form – it all sparked up my senses. From there I delved into colour and flavour science, how colour associations can determine how a person might experience flavour. For example most people see red as sweet, black as bitter, white as salty and green as sour. But there’s little research around umani. But of course there are so many cross overs, black things can be sweet, salty, sour or umami. I loved the idea of confusing the consumer, I turned a lot of our family dinners blue with blue spirulina powder. My family weren’t sure if it was going to be sweet or savoury. It was always savoury, as most blue things we associate with sweet. I made blue aioli, blue pasta etc. These days I paint with the seasons, focusing on particular ingredients and flavours. I’m also always trying to learn more about flavour – I loved Arielle Johnson’s book Flavourama. Which as made me realise that most of my intense feeling for flavour are actually about smell. So I’m learning lots more about smell.

● Are your painting layers responding also to fragrance? Mouth feel? Trigeminal hot and cold sensation?

I’m just learning about the power of fragrance, I always thought it was always about flavour. But I think it’s mostly about smell. As a little girl my favourite thing to play with was play doh because I adored the smell. I think part of reason I still adore my husband after 30 years is his smell. I even like his ‘body odour’, he never smells bad to me. Must be his perfect pheromones. ha ha. Mouthfeel yes, I know chefs often thing about how each bite might feel in the mouth. Something soft, something crunchy, something small, something big etc. All those opposites work so well with painting too. So where I have a quiet soft area, I have something ‘crunchy’ next to it. I think about cooking terms all the time when I’m painting.

● Were there many challenges along the way of evolving this series?

Painting is challenging, full stop. I have to follow my intuition; there are no rules. Much like a chef – it’s trial and error until it feels right. I’m not thinking about how the work is going to be viewed, I’m only thinking about if I love the work. If it’s good enough to eat with the eyes.

● Do you anticipate and taste flavours while you’re painting?

All the time. If I’m struggling with a painting, I often go home and re cook the dish that first inspired the painting. I need to re experience the joy of those flavours and smells to be able to bring that joy and energy into the studio again. I also find if I’ve visited the grower of the ingredients and they’re passionate about their product, I often take on that energy and try to put that into the painting. I’m not so much painting the ingredient but I’m painting the feeling it gives me.

From the catalogue: Biography

Nicola Bennett joined ARTIS Gallery in December 2023 and presented her first solo exhibition at ARTIS in August 2024.

Originally from the UK, Nicola is now based in Alexandra, Central Otago. Her paintings celebrate the sensory intricacies of cooking with everyday ingredients – walnuts, figs, feijoa, black garlic or saffron.

Her approach intertwines colour with flavour, intertwining the sensory experiences of cooking and painting. She harmonises colours by intuitively mixing them, often painting directly on ingredients to capture their essence. Her process is organic, allowing paintings to evolve naturally, sometimes diverging from initial expectations. Drawing inspiration from the likes of chef, Yotam Ottolenghi, local farms and local chefs, her works are an exploration of synaesthesia – where multiple stimuli merge into one painting that becomes a sensory journey. In this way, when her kitchen and painting studio converge, it becomes a space where ingredients inspire both culinary creations and vibrant abstract paintings.

https://www.nicolabennett.co.nz/