"Lobster with drawn butter"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 8" x 10"

Alice Thompson's Calypso Moon Artist Challenge this month has us painting delicious food that is bad for us. She was very specific that it not be healthy food. Beyond that, the world was our oyster. To that end, I choose lobster with drawn butter. Without chemicals my cholesterol would be sky high and I probably should stay away from anything drenched in butter, but I can't help myself. My doctor gave me a choice a few years ago. He said "We can do this with diet and exercise or I can write you a prescription". Tough choice - Duh! Gooey desserts have never held much fascination for me. I grew up with a diabetic mother and two diabetic sisters and sugar-free jello was often the Dessert du Jour in our house. I never got use to eating sweets. Oh, I'll indulge in a hot fudge sundae now and then but I would really rather have a nice hunk of Roquefort than a piece of cake any day. Besides, lobsters are as much fun to paint as they are to eat. How we suffer for our art!

"Plateau de fruits de mer"

Oli on panel 5" x 7"

Do you honestly think that I could go to Paris and not avail myself of the local seafood? Many of the brasseries had fantastic displays of freshly shucked oysters; clams known as amandes; raw mussels; baby shrimp in their shells; cadmium red prawns; whole cooked crab; chewy sea snails known as bulots and tiny blue-black winckles. We succumbed to their sirens song and soon found ourselves starring at a beautiful Plateau de fruits de mer; a gorgeous, glistening assortment of shellfish, or fruits of the sea perched high on the table on an ice-filled round metal platter. Accompanied with slices of rye bread, lovely French salted butter, quarters of fresh lemon, mayonnaise and mignonette, my companions could only drool and eat bread, as I spent 10 minutes capturing it from every angle with my camera. My wife is used to me discreetly photographing food at restaurants. We can’t eat steamed crabs (a Baltimore specialty) without me whipping out my faithful little canon elph. “Can I eat now?” is her common mantra. It has gotten worse since the daily painting started as everything is possible creative fodder.
Trying to keep it fresh (no pun intended), I may leave Paris tomorrow and try something a little different. Stay tuned.

"Three on the half shell"

Oil on panel - 6"x 6"Here it is kids - the last painting until I return from Paris early next month. Rest assured that I will return fully charged to get back to the easel. What better place to become inspired than the City of Lights? À bientôt.