Gumball Machine

Let’s face it: laundromats and oil painting don’t mix. But there I was with my paint kit, a beautiful gumball machine in front of me, and three hours to kill.


I set up my easel and my folding chair next to a washing machine, which is visible in the right of the painting. I left just enough floorspace for people to squeeze past me with their laundry hampers.

It took a while to draw in all those darned colored gumballs. As I painted them, my worst fear was that someone would actually buy a gumball and mess up the arrangement.

Sure enough, a kid snuck up behind me and jammed a quarter into the slot. He spun the handle before I could say anything. Each time he cranked it, all the gumballs shuffled around inside.

“Hey, my still life!” I protested weakly.

He popped the gumball in his cheek and narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing?” he said, between chews. “You an artist?”

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This painting is reproduced full-page in Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter. (in the context of "local color.") 

Thanks to Dan Dos Santos of the blog "Muddy Colors" for recommending Color and Light in the Top Ten Art Books of 2010.

By the way, I’ve been filling all your mailed-in orders, and I just want to compliment all of you wives who are giving the book as a gift to your husbands—and vice-versa. That’s really nice of you!

If you mailed in an order and are wondering when it will come, I’ve been turning them around within 24 hours after receiving them. Today I mailed out orders that were postmarked between November 30-Dec.3 and received yesterday.