mike geno - portfolio

Bleu Thunder

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I first painted another cheese from Lovera's in oklahoma, for my cheese map project. Since then I've had the pleasure of meeting Shawn Duffy who helps run the business he married into and that's been going for over 60 years. Recently I also got to meet his stepson, Mateo, who is currently the talented cheesemaker making some impressive Italian style cheeses sold around the country and .... from oklahoma! Getting to know them both has been a lot of fun. When I recently saw their new cheese that they were showing off at the American Cheese Society's annual conference, I was struck with it's beauty. My ogling resulted in a generous gift of a full wheel of this beautiful blue to take home to my studio! Bleu Thunder is a rustic gorgonzola made from raw Jersey cow milk with a buttery flavor and creamy texture and seductively colored with annatto seed that makes a stunning gradation of a sunset you find in postcards. I had SO much fun painting this because the moment my eyes laid on it, I had this very image in my head.

Origin: USA, oklahoma

Tags: lovera's market, cow, raw, blue

Price: sold

Braided Caciocavera

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This smoked, stretched and braided mozzarella is made by Lovera's in oklahoma. Instead of forming the traditional gourd-like shaped Caciocavera, the curd is stretched into ribbons and then braided. They explain that each is "slow-smoked with hickory wood. Each cheese is braided by hand, brine salted and air dried to perfection. The braids are then carefully smoked with smoldering logs of locally harvested Mockernut Hickery. Also the Jersey cow milk used in making Lovera's cheese is hormone and pesticide free from family-owned single-source dairies." It was an especially fun challenge painting this a-typical shaped cheese with it's complexities. The braided cheese was folded once and sealed in plastic when I received it, and when I first started the painting, it wasnt very flexible, so I left it in that position. By the time I'd finished this painting, it was easy to maneuver and delicious. I am a sucker for smoked cheeses of all kinds!

Origin: USA, oklahoma

Tags: OK, cow, smoked, braided

Price: sold

Bismarcks

Series: Donut

Description: "Bismarcks" I learned, is what those in the midwest/western part of the United States call "filled" donuts. I learned this from the patron in oklahoma, that commissioned this painting. After minimal research on the name, I decided to go with the old school spelling, after Otto von Bismarck, actually, Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck.

Tags: donut

Price: sold