Robin Hextrum - The Queen of the Ice Cream

Hello, my name is Robin Hextrum and this is my painting titled “The Queen of the Ice Cream.” One of my favorite childhood board games was "Candy Land." I always loved the imagined world I could extrapolate from playing this game. I wanted to make a painting that would play with this idea. I went to a local candy store to buy some of the references for this work and collaged many individual images of ice cream to make this large pile.

I enjoyed exploring vibrant color combinations to help move the viewer’s eye across the image. I also wanted to add a figure to this painting who could ground the composition. I chose to paint a zebra with red stripes that would allude to the stripes on a candy cane. This zebra is the “Queen” the title references. Since many mythical creatures are depicted as either male or neutral, I wanted to make sure I included a specific reference to a female in the form of a queen gazing over her sugary kingdom.

There are thick applications of paint here to capture the texture of ice cream. Some of my ideas for this artwork came from looking at paintings by Wayne Thiebaud who is known for his thickly painted and lustrous works of cakes and ice cream. I also looked at paintings by the contemporary artist Will Cotton, who in a nod to his own name, often paints cotton candy clouds and piles of sweets. I hope you enjoy this escape into a delicious world.