Long Sweet Pepper

2/19. Long Sweet Pepper, oil on linen panel, 5x7 in.

This was two hours or maybe a little more. The shifts in the red of the pepper were tricky; I always have trouble with red as making it go lighter can easily take it too far toward orange or pink. And after everything the camera flattens it all out.

Valentine's Day Cake

2/16. Valentine's Day Cake, oil on linen panel, 5x5 in.

Instead of giving my wife a store-bought cake on Thursday, I made her a small heart-shaped one and let Breagha help sprinkle the red sugar on top (though she was more interested in licking it off her hand). We took a picture of it and on Saturday I thought I'd paint the last piece before it was gone. I quickly came to believe that, despite anything I used to think of Wayne Thiebaud, only he could capture the fake-colored sugar and shortening essence of a cake. (If anyone is wondering, the stuff at the top of my painting was my crude attempt at the plastic wrap.)