lock 6"x7"

I found this lock laying around in my classroom. There was no key for it and I've known that for a long time. For some reason I've kept the thing even though it's completely useless as a lock since there's no way of opening it. I guess I just liked the way it looked.
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honey 6"x7"

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sunflower 6"x7"

The ag teacher at school, Jill Mendelsohn, has a small garden and greenhouse behind her room. Her students had planted some sunflowers and she was nice enough to provide one for this painting. Sunflowers are a pretty common item for still life painting. I've seen many pictures of them and have experienced them first hand many times. Until I painted this one I don't think I really understood just how big and yellow they really are.
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cocktail onions 6"x7"

I bought these because I really liked the jar. I needed something simple and attractive to put flowers in and it filled the bill. I liked the subtle values of the onions so I decided to paint them before emptying the jar.
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paint brush 6"x7"

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grapes 6"x7"

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pipe wrench 6"x7"

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chocolate covered donut 6"x7"

On Friday I bought donuts for my second period class because they're a good bunch of kids. I started painting this one that afternoon and finished it up today. It looked the same to me over the 24 hours that it was my model. The same cannot always be said of fruit or flowers. It's kind of scary to think about eating something that has been engineered to be indestructible.
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garlic 6"x7"

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banana 6"x7"

This is my first horizontal composition. This painting is 6"x7" just like all the others.
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plumbago 6"x7"

We have a couple of these bushes in our backyard. I've always really liked the flowers.

plum 6"x7"

I like how this painting turned out. I just wish I could have gotten a picture without all the glare. When this dries a little bit I may retake the picture.

sprouting yam 6"x7"

This yam was on our counter for a little too long and grew some sprouts. The thing I liked most about it was the secondary color scheme it had. The yam was a nice warm brownish orange that made a great background for the subtle violets and greens in the shoots. It was fun to paint but I don't think I'll be eating it.
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scissors 6"x7"

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red onion 6"x7"

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olive jar 6"x7"

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lemon wedges 6"x7"

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piton 6"x7"

Thanks to Bart O'Brien for loaning me this cool piece of climbing history to paint. Many of my students asked me what this was while I was working on it and it occurred to me that many people might be unfamiliar with this object. A piton is used in mountaineering or rock climbing to anchor the rope and thus protect the climbers from falling. They're not used much any more as they tend to scar the rock with repeated use. I have never pounded one into a crack myself, and doubt I ever will, but I have never hesitated to clip into one that I came across fixed to a route I was climbing.
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eggplant

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wasp nest

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key lime

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castle peak

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thinner can

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egg

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hammer

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doll head

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thistle

I just got back from camping this weekend so I'm a little late in posting this. We spent the night at Willow Creek Campground near the mouth of the Russian River. It was a cool place to camp and there were thistles all over the place.
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salt shaker

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pear

There's a pear tree on our campus outside my classroom. Thanks to Pollyanna Redman for suggesting this subject matter!
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shot put

I'd like to thank my student Marie Warsing for bringing this great object in for me to paint!
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