"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...

"Strawberry Pair"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I apologize for my lack of posts lately - I came down with some sort of sickness last week. It must be something going around the entire country, because I know of multiple people in different states who have been ill in the past two weeks. Thankfully I am now back underway, (relatively) healthy again and apparently free from January doldrums.

 

I've never painted strawberries before. I like them. They are of course pleasantly red, and good strawberries on home-made shortcake with real whipped cream is a pleasure fit for kings. Such was the post-painting fate I had planned for these, but the lady roommate decided to eat them plain while watching television. Next time, my pretties... Next time you will be shortcake...

"Stoplight Tomatoes"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I've never been stopped in my tracks by mere tomatoes before. They had a bin full of these things at the market store on Sunday - all sizes, shapes, and colors, all for one pound price, labelled "heirloom tomatoes". The first one I picked up looked like a small pumpkin. I picked out traffic light colors, hence the title.

"Punk Orange" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

6" x 8" oil on archival canvas panel

 

This is a rare "Sunday Night Painting". I visited a local Upscale Market Store on Sunday for some Christmas wine and other goodies, and was delighted to find a surprisingly large variety of new and strange fruits in the bins, including "Satsuma Mandarins" with leaves still attached. The roommate picked this one out as her favorite. My conservative eye had located an orange with a couple of cute little leaves, but she dug a little deeper and pulled out this one with a full punk rock hairdo.

 

I brought home three or four different things to paint and was excited enough that I went ahead and started painting at 8 P.M. on a Sunday (Normally at that time I crash out and play video games or watch a downloaded copy of the week's episode of Top Gear). The late start wasn't a problem, as I had to paint fast anyway - the 75W bulb in my painting lamp is unkind to fresh greenery.

"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.

"Waning Cookie"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

Title, composition, and lighting setup inspired by the recent Venus-Mars-Moon conjunction. The cookie was good.

 

On a personal note, I sacrificed today's painting time in order to drive over to Ft. Worth Joint Reserve Base (formerly Carswell AFB) and take photos like these:

I had time to make a few sketches of the crowd at the overlook before I spotted some friends at the fence, and not long afterwards things started to happen down on the flightline, so I traded my sketchbook for a camera and binoculars. On the aesthetic front, Endeavour is a beautiful ship in the flesh. I've always seen the Shuttle as boxy and only vaguely airplane-esque - an extraordinary collection of compromises which, while an amazing accomplishment, is certainly nowhere near as attractive as its 1960's and 70's aerospace contemporaries, like the brutally beautiful Phantom, broad-shouldered Tomcat, or elegantly thuggish F-105. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in person, from the side, the Shuttle does show just a dash of the aggressive, hungry 1960s look.

I don't have much else to report without using superlatives like "spectacular" and "once in a lifetime". That is not an exaggeration, since this was my first, and - due to the Shuttle's impending retirement - last opportunity to see the Shuttle ferried through this neck of the woods. Some things are worth skipping work for.

"Sugar Cookie Stack"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I've always liked the appearance of these kinds of cookies. The lady of the house brought some home from her office Christmas party, and suggested I paint them. This is the second time I've had a subject like this, and I've found that cookies with sugar on them are a surprising challenge to paint.

 

Thanks to everybody who stopped by the table to chat at the show on Saturday! Unfortunately there were no reindeer to sketch - for that matter, I didn't have a chance to crack the sketchbook, with all the crowds. I've had some technical issues here today, my computer picked up a virus last night somewhere and I ended up spending all day tracking it down and killing it, but tomorrow I plan on introducing a direct sale page for the paintings I had at the show, among others. Stand by.

"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!

"Green Apple Present" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I once had a color theory teacher who harbored a silly hatred for chartreuse. We were actually told that we would be penalized for using it in any assignments, because "It had no use anywhere" (It's safe to say this woman knows nothing about the original 1970s Lamborghini Miura and has never seen any nightclub flyers). Since taking that class years ago, I like to keep an eye out for chartreuse-type greens in daily use. The latest appearance was on last Sunday's "Thanskgiving Showdown" episode of Iron Chef America. Besides a really wicked Indian Pudding dessert cooked by Bobby Flay, the show featured a chartreuse ICA "crossed knives" logo on the judge's table.

 

For my part, I picked up a delightfully retro green background cloth at a fabric store the other day, and I decided to put it to use with a yellow-green apple and a small gift box from the roommate's jewelry cabinet. Green is my all-around favorite color to begin with, so it was fun to throw together various blues with my two mainstay yellows. The downside is that it was hard to adjust the photograph of the painting, with all the subtle yellow-greens in play.

"The Chrome Bear" - SOLD

 

 

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6" x 8" oil on archival canvas panel

 

Yes, it's a chrome-plated polar bear. Every so often, in one of America's numberless stores full of kitschy Chinese junk, I'll find something so strange that I have to have it. Such was the case with this chrome Christmas bear. It's like a hood ornament from Santa's vintage roadster. I have no idea what I'm intended to do with it, but it was half-price, and since it is the patriotic duty of all freedom-loving Americans to buy stuff when it's on sale, it came home with me.

 

The berries are from a small tree outside my apartment building. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but it has borne lovely little red berries for weeks now, despite two cold snaps and a rapidly fading fall season.

"Orbs"

 

 

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6" x 8" oil on archival canvas panel

 

From the "I Swear The Title Is Not A Dirty Euphemism" file. I meant to paint this arrangement last week using an Australian blood orange - they were rounder and more red - but the roommate wiped out the last orange before I could paint it. I had to substitute a tangerine instead. The glass item is actually a teapot, the roundness of which inspired both the idea and the title.

"East Texas Honey"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

This was a fun subject. The honey jar really is labelled "Honey 100% Pure East Texas" and contains a section of comb. The bear figurine is one of three that I picked up somewhere years ago. I don't even know what exactly they are supposed to be - I think maybe they were intended as something to put on top of a pencil - but I have one each in flourescent pink, flourescent green, and white (pictured). It was the only thing in the house that was remotely appropriate for accompanying a honey jar.

"Silver Cup, Red Orange"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I bought a worn silver cup at a thrift store a while back that I have really wanted to paint for a while now. There was no special idea behind this one, just a combination of silver, orange, and blue, using my favorite backdrop cloth (which is actually a ladies pajama top, I think). The orange is an Australian blood orange acquired at a local upscale market store, of interest to me because it's red more than "orange". I thought about showing it partly peeled, but a blood orange with the flesh showing looks a bit freaky. Maybe I should have done that for Halloween...

"Mango Lemon Buddha" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I wanted to do something very yellow.

"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"

 

 

Contact Me for Sale!

 

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.