Part of my “Tastes Of Home” series. I know this painting isn’t true to the series in that whoopie pies aren’t really a local “brand.” But, quite frankly, I needed a break from painting lettering and I wanted to paint a simpler painting. I enjoy painting subjects that, on the surface, seem color limited, but upon deeper observation appear to have a large variety of colors. Whoopie pies are brown and cream white, but I used red, orange, yellow, purple, and blue to get this painting to read right – there’s even a bit of green in the cream shadows. A few weeks before painting this, I visited the Wayne Thiebold exhibit at the Brandywine Museum – Thiebold is the artist made famous by painting pies and cakes – he used various bold colors on his edges, creating a halo effect on his paintings. Dawned on me once I finished this painting that I took a page out of his book – painting sweets using all the colors on my pallet – seems we’re always “standing on shoulders of giants.” My “Tastes Of Home” series celebrates food brands native to Berks County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and Greater Philadelphia – the area where I live.
