"Love Snack"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

The box for these cakes actually does say they are a "snack". Any reference to the B-52's was built upon that basis.

"Black Heart And Rose"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on archival canvas panel

 

My first one for February. I feel pretty good about it, despite its simplicity. January was pretty much a dead month and things aren't going so great here at the moment, so it felt good to get back to a familiar subject. I actually hadn't planned on doing anything with plums again so soon, but at the store the other day the lady of the house picked up a "black plum" at random and - mirable dictu! - it was shaped almost exactly like a heart. Pointiest plum I've ever seen. Ten steps further and we found a display of "Pacific Rose" apples. I put the color combination and the names together in my head and thus, we have our painting, with its Fake But Accurate title.

"Fruit Is Love"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

This arrangement quite literally dropped onto the table. I bought raspberries specifically for painting, and was disappointed to find that without cores and leaves (like freshly plucked) they are significantly less interesting visually. When I put this one down on the table, I got lucky because it's heart-shaped. Appropriate for Valentine's Day, and edible, too.

"Nectarine Alone" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I had a really hectic Friday and Saturday which prevented me from putting this one up on time. Shortly after I finished the nectarines decided they didn't want to be fresh anymore - thus ended their artistic stardom.

 

In hopeful anticipation of holiday demand, I'll be re-posting some of my older work for sale this week along with the regular daily works.

"Nectarine Trio" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

They had small nectarines at the store, which I will describe as "cute", for lack of a better word. In this case, I was feeling a bit graphic. A little bit primary, even...

"Marzipan's End"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on archival canvas panel

 

I have the great fortune of living only a short drive from German Deli. Of course I can - and have - ordered from them over the internet, but it's fun to drive up there on a Sunday afternoon and browse around. Usually they have beer and brats cooking outside in the parking lot available for a couple of bucks. German food makes for a good gift, as well, and for this painting I used the end of a marzipan piece included in a gift package from my mother. Marzipan ranks up there in my personal top ten eating pleasures. I really can't say enough good things about it.

 

This past week I've been putting the paintings up on consecutively shorter auctions, as it's getting down to Christmas crunch time for shipping. This one is up for three days, but I will relist for the regular period after this coming week. In the meantime, any purchases will be packed and shipped out as fast as I can go.

"Berries And Orange"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I'm usually a bit stumped when it comes time to title these more "traditional" type miniature still-life paintings. I don't want to be pretentious, but I don't want to be flat and explicitly technical, either. On the other hand, sometimes flat and technical is all I can think of. I wanted to to paint some of the berries from the tree outside again, I had a creamer to put them in, and I needed something large and eye-catching for contrast. Staying seasonal, I picked an orange from the store. I used one of my new background cloths. So... It's "Berries And Orange" because it's the shortest way of telling the truth about the painting.

 

This is not to say that I had no enthusiasm about the subject beyond the immediately technical, but I'd rather not beat the viewer over the head with highbrow noise (especially since eBay listings need short titles). Unless you're into that sort of thing? "Existential Pairing #5: Fruits of The Season" could work, too, if you like. Whatever levitates your seagoing craft, wink smiley!

"The Pumpkin's Fate"

 

 

Available via my Direct Sale Page!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

The nice thing about painting food is that you can usually eat it afterwards. The featured slice of pumpkin pie made a good (and seasonal) post-painting afternoon snack.

 

On the subject of seasonal pleasures, I just realized that I have yet to buy my annual treat of Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, a.k.a. The Best Pumpkin Ale Ever, Full Stop. This is a tragic oversight that I must remedy as soon as possible.

"Vase, Glass, And Mango"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I thought I would try a little more traditional still-life setup on the smaller daily painting format. These are some thrift store items and a Brazilian mango (according to the label) that I picked up at the store the other day. I didn't really have anything special in mind for this one, I just put the items together, picked up the brush, and went at it.

"Goose And Apple"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I must apologize for the uncreative title. I figured the best thing to do was to stay descriptive, and keep it simple! I picked this goose figurine up at a local thrift store along with a bunch of other props and items for still-life paintings. It's amazing how much random stuff you can get for $7.83 if you know where to dig.

 

I've been wanting to deviate from fruit a bit, and I don't want to over-do the "apples" thing, but there were some really nice big ones available with all sorts of interesting shapes and patterns. I can't help myself. And they're delicious too... Honey Crisp for the win!

"Tilted Apple" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

Attack of the Uncreative Title! The apple really is tilted. The bottom is flat but the body of the apple slants at an angle. It was purchased as an ingredient for a crock pot curry, but I demanded that it be spared - at least until I could paint it.

"Ghost Pumpkin" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I was thinking of the opening scene of Hamlet while I was arranging the pumpkins.

"Reclining Pear"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

Sorry for the posting hiatus. I have built up a little bit of a backlog (which is a good thing), so here is the first painting on my newly constructed setup, painted last week.

 

I've had a mind to try painting pears for a while, but the offerings at the grocery store were ugly or bruised, until last week. One of these days I'm going to be admonished by store staff for manhandling fruit, as I like to pick and poke through produce in search of artistically interesting examples. This is the second painting I did of this particular pear, which was the only one in the pile with a leafy stem. I didn't much like the first one, but this one is acceptable.

 

Sadly, this painting also marks the death of my second Escoda sable detailing brush. They start out so lovely and satisfying to use, but it seems like small sables can't survive the daily oil painting routine for long. I was not ready to make another internet re-supply order, but a small touch-up brush is something I consider a necessity, so I made a quick hop down to the local art $upply $tore and picked up a Princeton 4000R size 0. So far, it shows no signs of unhappiness with its duties. I'm turning into a fan of Princeton brushes.

"Thai Banana Fan"

 

 

Available via My Direct Sale Page

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I pushed "fast and loose" while deliberately punching up the color. As for the subject, I saw these small "Thai bananas" at the market and really liked the repetition of their fan-shaped array. The other local grocery store had similar small bananas from Colombia, with an unusual brownish-bronze color, but I left them where they were - I doubt that anybody would want a painting of brown bananas!

"Moon Cake Pig"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

This weekend the local Asian market was celebrating a "Moon Festival", and tins of "moon cakes" were for sale in great big stacks. Some of them were round, and others were shaped like pigs. The pig shaped "cakes" (more like cookies, in this case) were so much fun to look at in their strange space-suit-like plastic containers, that I absolutely had to acquire one for painting purposes.

 

Of course, if you've never had a pig-shaped moon cake you might wonder how it tastes. The closest comparison I can make is to Marzipan, or a similar paste made from nuts, except more like vegetables (the ingredients are lotus seeds and peanut oil). I wouldn't seek them out again, but they were interesting to try once, and I liked painting the pig.

"Raven Among Plums" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I wanted to place some of the darker, more purple plums with some kind of purple object. The raven is a small crystalline stone item I bought at a gem & mineral show many years ago. I'm not sure what stone exactly it's made of, but the household consensus is that it's amethyst.

"Buddha's Three Plums" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

 

This was done on the recycled panel from last week's post-lunch "wiper". We continue with the plums and the Asiatic theme...

"The Lady of Plum Wine" - SOLD

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

 

Another one on Raphael panel, and I think I'm getting marginally better at this "keeping it loose" thing... Marginally. I've started using only three brushes - a very large (1") angular bright, a 1/4" flat, and my Escoda rigger. The big angular bright is a little awkward to start with on such a small surface, but it keeps me focused on quickly building up mass. I use the flat brush for cleanup & trimming, then the little Escoda is used for touch up, enhancements, and edge control. This all sounds very methodical, and I am a methodical kind of guy, but the actual process, of course, is not so cut and dry.

 

I'm really enjoying painting plums, so I may stay on this theme for a while longer. The cup is from a small sake set brought back from Japan by the roommate's uncle, and the bottle is Fu-Ki plum wine... It's like liquid candy. I think of it as sort of like Japanese Manischewitz. If it wasn't so devastating to my digestive health, I wouldn't be able to keep my nose out of the stuff.

"Prosperity Plums" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

 

While preparing for Friday's painting, it occurred to me that plums are a sort of prosperity symbol. We refer to choice jobs or desirable assignments as "plums", for example. Years ago, just prior to art school graduation, a classmate gave me a small wooden teapot, which he explained to be a symbol of prosperity in Chinese culture. I liked the idea of a symbolic connection between a plum and a teapot. I couldn't find the actual wooden miniature that my classmate gave me (although I can swear I brought it down to TX with me when I moved back here again?), so I settled for one of the roommate's curio items.

 

I'm staying the fast & loose course here, this time on a newly purchase linen panel. The Raphael-brand panels cost 3x as much as Ampersand Gessobord, but I find that they give back a canvas-like feel on a more solid support, without being too rough.

"Lofty Aspirations"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on linen panel

 

Everybody else in the world has painted limes at some point, so I figured I'd go ahead and give it a try. I also picked up some linen panels on my most recent internet re-supply run. I think I prefer the look of Ampersand Gessobord, but paint does handle better on a nice textured surface.

 

This photo was very hard to manipulate into a correct representation of the actual painting. The light values and subtle colors in the background were tricky to tune with levels and saturation. Somehow the red accent markings on the limes got lost, and the shadows of the limes are a warmer gray (not so much black) on the real work.