"The Pumpkin's Fate"

 

 

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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.

"Thai Banana Fan"

 

 

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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!

"Blue Monday Teacup"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They will turn away no more

 

Yesterday was Monday, and I decided to make it blue. I've had this teacup for a while and didn't really know what to do with it painting-wise, so I picked "blue" as an idea and threw in some Voortman's shortbread cookies for accent. Getting the photo to look even vaguely accurate was tough; a lot of the more subtle purples and greens got lost between the camera and the JPG.

"Two Hot"

 

 

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6"x6" oil on gesso board

 

The local Kroger stores have been stocking whole Habanero peppers. I've never knowingly seen an Habanero before, and was surprised at their lovely, subtle vibrance and milky surface quality. I tried to capture that glow but I don't think I've succeeded here. I'll have to try a different approach to achieve the impression of transparency.

 

I figured a simple pairing of an Habanero with a garden-grown red Chili would be a fun way to start painting peppers. My desk light was warming up the peppers as the day wore on, and by the time I finished painting, my eyes had become irritated from their peppery vapors.

"The Love Cookie"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

(Note: Title is best said in a Barry White voice.) These "angel cookies" are some of the most profoundly good cookies available. They get high marks from me in taste, texture, aesthetics, and price.

"Cosmic Combination"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

This is what became of the 6x6 that I scrubbed out before doing the previous painting. I had been getting caught up in details and complications, so I aimed for "bold and simple". I attempted to paint chocolate and cherries together, but 70% cacao Scharffen Berger chocolate melts ridiculously fast if it gets anywhere near a 60-watt desk lamp, so the best alternative was to use something cake-like that wouldn't melt before I finished the under-sketching. This is the last remaining fresh cherry atop the last survivor from a batch of brownies.

"Hot and Sweet"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I was just getting started on cherry paintings when I was given a purple pepper from a local garden. I'm not sure if it's a hot variety, but it certainly was purple, and made for a fun combination.

"From The Garden"

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

The title is not rhetorical - the tomatoes, pepper, and greenery were all grown fresh and local. Important note: If you paint fresh greenery from a garden, be sure to paint fast, else the greens will un-freshen over the course of a work day, and your composition will change as you paint. Ask me how I know!

"Uranium Glass Cat"

 

 

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5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

Title says it all - this is a cat made from Uranium Oxide glass. I bit off more than I was expecting to chew with this one. I accidentally overslept on this workday, and the late wakeup put me under time pressure to set up and start painting, so I grabbed the cat from the roommate's curio cabinet, put it on top of a box, stuck a sheet of paper under it to break up the background, turned on the light, and got to work. It took a lot of work to cope with the varied colors, reflections, transparencies, and opacities on what appeared to be a simple green piece of glass.

 

If you ever see one of these Uranium Glass antiques, you should know that the glass is not dangerous, but it really is made with a form of Uranium. And yes, the feet of the cat were off the paper on the actual object, so although it looks like it's floating, that's how it sat on the box top.

Painting Trek 2: The Wrath of Backlog - "Home-Made", July 8th, 2008

 

 

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6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

This is painting #2, from back on July 8th. I made a batch of cookies on the previous Monday night, and saved a trio for painting on Tuesday. At the end of the workday the milk had been out for too long, but the cookies were still perfectly edible... And they were good.

Here we go... #1: "Minerva", July 7th, 2008

 

 

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5" x 7" oil painting on 1/8th" thick Ampersand Gessobord

 

Here is my first-ever "daily painting". I have a bit of a backlog, so in truth, this one was done back on July 7th. The owl is a candle holder acquired at a local thrift store, and the apples were the finest quality available from Kroger. They were left over from my July 4th applie pie, and if I recall correctly, they were made into pastries not long after this painting was finished. They were good.