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.

Perpetual Calendar Finished

I actually posted these on Facebook a while ago but I wanted to make sure everybody could enjoy. 

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....