After all, a sumptuous meal is as much about presentation as it is about taste. Perhaps this is why today's gourmet cooks -- amateur and professional alike -- are taking to heart the maxim that a successful meal is both menu and venue. And why artists, like Luer, are finding a welcome home -- both in big corporate restaurants like Bakers Square and in intimate family kitchens like those of Pam Wagner -- for their work.

"I was looking for something that made a statement -- that would immediately get your attention by saying this is a place that deals with food," explains Wagner, whose newly remodeled kitchen is adorned with a larger-than-life (four foot by three foot) pastel still life of fresh onions, garlic, and vine-ripe tomatoes created by Ms. Luer. "The intensity of Pam's colors blew me away."

Luer hasn't always painted such large-scale Gourmet Art for restaurants and individual collectors. Still, as an artist, she had long known that her medium -- pastel on sandpaper -- lent itself to vibrant recreations of fruits and vegetables.

Luer actually began "living large" after a chance meeting in a Mailbox Etc. with restaurant designer Jeff Thompson, president of Minneapolis-based Eatertainment. After glimpsing smaller originals of her work for greeting cards, Thompson asked Luer if she could bump up the average size of her paintings from inches to feet.

"She looked at me like I was crazy," Thompson recalls, "but then she took my business card and said she'd get back to me." When Luer found she could secure sandpaper in the appropriate sizes, she contacted Thompson who immediately commissioned four pieces for Harrah's Casino, which has restaurants in Memphis, Kansas City, and several other metropolitan locations.

"Pam did one of an eggplant and asparagus that was four-feet by five-feet. It was spectacular," said Thompson, adding that the painting hangs in a 500-seat buffet called Fresh Market Square.

Luer's move to a larger format has been well received by individuals such as Wagner as well. "Pam shared a piece with me that she had painted for a restaurant," Wagner notes. Feeling as though the size and subject matter provided the perfect focal point for her recently remodeled kitchen, she asked Luer to create a custom piece.

As she does with all her clients, Luer began by discussing the project in detail with Wagner. In addition to size, content, and location, they reviewed the room colors. "Colors are an important parameter to start from," Luer explains. "It's also helpful to have an idea of the lighting and how far away people are likely to be when they view my work."

Today, Luer's paintings range in size from 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch (for a Bakers Square pie menu) to six feet by three feet. When discussing content, she says her clients are either very specific about what they want, as was Wagner, a lover of Italian and Mexican cooking, or wide open to her suggestions. Luer first offers a sketch for clients to review. Then, upon approval, begins the full-size (or over-sized) Gourmet Art painting.

Luer, who counts fellow Wisconsinite Georgia O'Keffe among her influences, seems pleased by the surging national interest in the fruits (and vegetables) of her labors. "I have this T-shirt that says, 'Good Art Doesn't Match Your Sofa', which I think is hilarious. But these days, I'm tempted to add a P.S.: 'But it can match your dinnerware.'"

For more information on Luer's work, call (612) 925-1908.

Courtesy of Article Resource Association, www.aracopy.com