Artist’s Palate: Sean Scully’s pancakes
Flip through Irish-born artist Sean Scully's dynamic pancake recipe, as featured in our monthly Artist’s Palate feature
Sean Scully has spent the last six decades fusing spirituality with abstraction, creating grids, stripes and bold stacks of colour. When the Irish-born artist proposed pancakes for our recipe series, we instantly imagined a stack, but as he explains, ‘I could make a stack, like one of my sculptures or paintings. But the family is eagerly waiting, so take them as they come, with maple syrup for the kids and jam for the adults.’ He has his pancake production down to a fine art, creating them a few times a week for his wife and eleven-year-old son. For Scully, giving a pancake enough airtime before serving is crucial because it excites the recipient. ‘If you can flip it over a couple of times in the air, you’re a master.’
Ingredients
1 organic egg
4 loaded tsp organic gluten-free flour
Organic grass-fed whole milk
Coconut oil, for frying
Method
Mix the egg and flour in a mug and leave it for a few minutes. Then stir in some milk. I make it thinner than most people because I want the pancake to be thin and delicate (you will have to play with amounts). Put coconut oil in a non-stick frying pan (not too much, about one teaspoon), then heat it over a medium heat. Pour in the pancake mix so it makes a nice, even puddle. After a few minutes, it should be solid enough to flip over with a wooden skillet. Then, here’s the artistic part, it should slide around, nice and loose, in the pan. This means it’s ready to be flipped. This is very important because it dries the pancake and gives it air. Plus, it excites the client. If you can flip it over a couple of times in the air, you’re a master.
Sean Scully’s pancake flipping in action, filmed in April 2020. Video courtesy of Sean Scully Studio
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
This article appears in the January 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*261) – on newsstands now and available for free download here
‘Sean Scully: Passenger’, until 15 January 2021, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest. en.mng.hu
The artist will stage his first show with Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris in Spring 2021. ropac.net
Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.
-
Blue Copper Loft is a Dubai sanctuary for a modern nomad
Blue Copper Loft designed by Anarchitect in the heart of Dubai is a peaceful, yet luxurious sanctuary for a modern nomad
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
DAB 1α electric motorbike is the first product from French manufacturer DAB Motors
The DAB 1α is an all-electric motorbike born out of industrial design, gaming culture and aviation technology, and now available to order
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The 2024 Ivor Novello nominations for songwriting have been revealed
77 British and Irish songwriters and composers make up this year's nominees, announced tonight at London's Groucho Club
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Guglielmo Castelli considers fragility and violence with painting series in Venice
Guglielmo Castelli’s exhibition ‘Improving Songs for Anxious Children’ at Palazzetto Tito, Venice, explores childhood as the genesis of discovery
By Sofia Hallström Published
-
‘Accordion Fields’ at Lisson Gallery unites painters inspired by London
‘Accordian Fields’ at Lisson Gallery is a group show looking at painting linked to London
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London
‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Oozing, squidgy, erupting forms come alive at Hayward Gallery
‘When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture’ at Hayward Gallery, London, is a group show full of twists and turns
By Hannah Silver Published
-
New glass sculpture creates a verdant wonderland at Apple’s Cupertino HQ
‘Mirage’ at Apple Park is the work of Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson, a shimmering array of glass columns that snakes through the grounds of the company’s monumental HQ
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Man Ray’s sculptures go on show in New York
‘Man Ray: Other Objects’ opens at Luxembourg + Co, New York, revealing their author’s ‘artistic revolution’
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The best London art exhibitions to see now
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Erwin Wurm’s pop-coloured fantasy land at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
In Erwin Wurm’s first UK museum show, ‘Trap of the Truth’, the artist transforms Yorkshire Sculpture Park into a slightly warped wonderland (10 June 2023 – 28 April 2024)
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published