Over the next few weeks, we’ll be interviewing some of the artists in The Art of Food, our current exhibit at Central Library.

Our first conversation is with Soline Krug, a local painter transplanted from Europe, who’s fiery images of wine cellars are included in the show. DC Art reviewer Lenny Campello recently wrote that Krug’s painting With Wine as Accomplice was his favorite piece in the Herstory exhibit at the Art League gallery.

How long have you been painting? When/why did you start?

I have been painting since the summer 2008. Growing up in Paris, having a father who studied art and a mother who now is a professional copist, it was almost natural to go for visual art. I didn’t think I could seriously be an artist though. That’s why I studied business. As my husband got a job opportunity in the US, I quit my job and followed him. I started some art classes waiting for my work permit. As I got it, I realized how empty I would feel if I had to stop painting. That’s how I decided to become professional. I never felt so happy.

How did you come to paint the subject of your paintings?

I wanted to paint about wine to reconnect with my home country which felt so far away. As I visited wine cellars in Saint-Emilion (Bordeaux) I started loving wine. Since then, I have developed a fascination for the underground world of wine cellars. I love the carved stones, the artificial lights, the tunnels, the coolness, the smell. I wanted to transmit this very particular experience of the senses in my paintings.

What are you working on now?

Now I am working on a very different subject. I concentrate on the human figure and try to reveal some aspects of the life my brother’s struggle. He died very recently and had to fight two illnesses, leukemia and asperger’s syndrom. He was trapped physically by the cancer and mentally by asperger’s syndrom. My new series of work deals with how the environment or the body itself can turn out to be a jail of your mind.

Find more of Soline Krug’s marvelous paintings, and news of upcoming exhibits, on her website.