Peanut M&M's on Mahogany



Of course if I painted the milk chocolate M&Ms, I could not leave out the peanut ones.  It is painted on 6 x 6 gessoed illustration board.  Looks good enough to eat and I love the different colors. I have noticed I am painting a lot of pop art lately. It is funny I guess, but I often paint things I know and see everyday. I hope you enjoy.

Milk Chocolate M&Ms on Mahogany

 


Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. I love the different colors on this painting and I think the wood makes the candies really stand out. It is painted on 6 x 6 gessoed illustration board. 

Blue Tootsie Pop

 


How many licks does it take to get to the center of this lollipop?

This painting is 6 x 6 oil on illustration board Please call me, email me, or click here if you'd like to buy this painting.

Peanut Butter Cup on Mahogany

 

I decided to tackle the foil once again since it was difficult to paint with the Hershey Kisses and I love a challenge. I think the foil holding this peanut butter cup looks great.  Don't you? 

Yellow Flower

 


Sometimes it is fun to imagine that is is summer during the winter...with the sun coming into the room just for a moment. This painting captures this sunlight and how it reflects on the flower, tiny bottle and tea cup. 

Falling Over in Love

 


As I was positioning the Hershey Kisses for this painting, the red one was hanging over the edge.  It reminded me of someone falling over in love, which is right on time for Valentine's Day. The maple wood provided interesting detail for this painting and it was fun to paint.  I hope you agree with me. 

Stolen Kisses


I love how the red and silver foil of these Hershey Kisses look while sitting on the wood. Foil is one of the more difficult things to paint, but I think I did an excellent job in capturing the light and dark colors of the foil. Someone had these kisses sitting on their desk at work and although she offered them to anyone who wanted them, I still felt as though I was stealing them...shhhh :) Doesn't this painting just make you want to eat these stolen kisses?  It is just in time for Valentine's Day.

Casbah White House



I decided to paint this building because I saw it on my honeymoon. I guess I was reminiscing about the fun times I had while visiting Morocco.  I saw this house in Tangier, within the walls of the Casbah.  I loved how it looked with its off white color against the pale blue sky.  This was especially fun to paint because it is a larger size of 11 x 14 inches. This one sold before I even posted it in my store. The early bird catches the worm...

Snow Covered Sunset



I saw this on my way home and was amazed by how blue everything seemed. I mentioned before how farming made modern civilization possible. Just a few days ago i heard a radio story that made a similar claim. Men that knew how to farm 10,000 years ago made better mates than those hunter/gatherer slackers. The farmer's children would have more to eat, and therefore would be more likely to survive.

Trapped Brass Pig


I came up with the idea of painting a pig in a vase while waiting for a software installation to finish. I had limited time to set up since the sunlight only comes into the living room a certain way between 10 and 10:30 in the morning. The pig I originally wanted to use didn't look very good either so I chose this brass pig that was on a shelf nearby. I used a piece of MDF board for this piece because I've heard good things about it. I'm not sure I'm sold on it just yet, maybe a couple more tries will do the trick.

Walther Farm No. 2


As the snow lets up a little more color is able to peek through. The red of the barn is more apparent and the golden wheat stands proud in the distance. The hard work that goes into this farm provides not only food but beautiful scenes like this snow covered wheat field. This is painting number 4 in my agriculture series of paintings.

Walther Farm No. 1



I drive past this farm in Bear, DE every night on my way home from work. You can find anything from Angus beef to squirrel feed to scarecrows. It's a vibrant and welcome contrast to the shopping center immediately behind it. The Dunkin' Donuts from last month's paintings are right across the street and offers a stark contrast to the busy suburban life surrounding this small family farm. The fascinating thing about snow is it's ability to allow only the most vibrant colors show when heavily muted.

BARC Swine Unit No. 2


These are the pig houses (swine houses?) at the BARC site in Beltsville. They look like they're constructed pretty solidly and remind me of the story of the three little pigs. I seriously doubt these would be blown down easily. It's easy to forget that this is within a few miles of Washington, DC. I've been using larger brushes than in some of my previous small paintings. After the painting of Baltimore I realized I was grabbing the small brushes not just for the detail but for the bulk of the painting so I'm trying to break myself of that habit.

BARC Swine Unit No. 1

Contact Me If Interested In Purchasing This Piece

I was amazed at how warm this cold winter's day looked. This week's painting is of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center's Swine Unit. I drive past it every day to and from work and it always fascinates me. Early in the morning the pigs get fed so they all huddle around to eat. I'm amazed each time I see them as to their large size. Living and working in such a technology driven society can make you forget that our real success depends on farming. Without agriculture most of the last 5,000 years would have come out very differently. This is painting number 1 in my agriculture series of paintings and number 11 in my series of small weekly paintings.

Breakfast & Dinner



Like the coming new year's celebration, night brings both an ending and a beginning. I felt that to convey this feeling it was only appropriate to paint this scene. Dunkin' Donuts is usually associated with breakfast but can just as easily soak up the wild night before and Grotto Pizza is just as tasty at night as it is the next morning. The lights dance in the melted snow in this scene, making a very suburban and sleepy Bear, Delaware just as festive as Times Square.

Baby, It's Cold Outside


   
I can't think of a more appropriate treat when the snow is falling. I have a long drive to work every day so coffee is a must in the morning. When I'm working in the middle of the night, I'm drinking coffee. When my wife and I go out for the night, we get coffee to perk us up. The only time I'm not drinking coffee is when I'm drinking tea.

Getting Stale



For as long as I can remember, I stop at Dunkin' Donuts most often when it's dark. When I was younger I'd stop by early in the morning on my way home from a party. Now, I stop by there at night on my way home from work to get my wife coffee. When I was thinking of ways to execute this week's painting, a nocturne seemed like the only obvious choice for me. I saw this woman inside the Bear, DE store looking out as if she was waiting for something.

Lehigh Cement


Every morning I drive through Baltimore to get to work. Every morning the light hits the Lehigh Cement tower just a little differently. I suspect it has to do with the pollution in the area, but pollution has a funny way of enhancing the color of the sky near the harbor.

I read this book by Paul Strisik recently and he wrote this passage about working from memory because it helps you better capture the feeling of a place and I placed more emphasis on my references than anything else. Working on a skill and evaluating ourselves over and over again is, after all, how we learn.

Chocolate Frosted


Who doesn't love a good chocolate-frosted doughnut? For a long time I would stop by Dunkin' Donuts every morning for breakfast. This was an obviously unhealthy tradition that I've been able to stop so it was a rare treat to pick up this doughnut early in the morning. Even the ladies now know my order when I walk in and before I even say anything. Now, to be honest, I chose a doughnut for the first painting only because I wanted to paint a doughnut. I love paintings of food so I gave it a go. This is painting number 1 in my Dunkin' Donuts-themed series of paintings and number 7 in my series of small weekly paintings. Mmmmmmm....