Vending Machine Series: Choices

With half of 2018 gone, I wish I could go back to April. I was totally focused, centered, and excited while working feverishly on my largest, most complex vending machine painting.  I called this Choices, for those of us who would need time to ponder what to buy from this fanciful machine.

I spent a full week sketching the composition. First I decided on the scale and proportions of the painting, and the products to include in each row. 

Then I played with the position of each item. Would they lean left, right or stand up straight? For example, take the corn. I experimented with a few packs and took photos to get some answers. As you can see, I went with a single ear of corn with lots of silk.

Lastly, there was the pricing. I wanted to make people think about how they make food choices when faced with alternatives. I wondered: Would people ever select healthier vegetables from a vending machine? Would bargain hungers buy veggies because are larger and perceived as a good value compared to smaller, more expensive sweets?

Once I had the initial sketch, I started painting the black background using Liquitex Acrylic Heavy Body paint. I kept thinning the paint with water to avoid having little patches of black paint clump on the surface.

I commandeered the kitchen table so I could paint on a flat surface and better control my brush strokes and avoid dripping paint. I began with the sides so they could dry first, and I could easily move the painting.

Once in the kitchen, I turned the canvas to different angles to check the paint coverage. Even though the canvas came pre-primed, it frequently took 3-4 acrylic coats to cover those irritating little white spots peeking through the textured canvas.

I was so glad to be using quick-drying acrylic paint (15 minutes vs. many days for oils)! It was the best way to go to keep the background smooth, like the metal of the machines, without having to wait between painting sessions.

Since it was easier to make compositional changes at this stage, I spent an extra day or so painting in the numbers with white acrylic paint. As the black background progressed, I moved the canvas back and forth between the flat kitchen table and the vertical refrigerator – to step back and get a better idea of how the finished piece would look

I knew from past paintings that if you can get the black background right at the beginning, the rest of the painting falls into place. It almost paints itself! (OK, not quite…)

Now I was ready to move Choices back to my easel permanently and paint the products in vibrant colors using oils. I think oil paint has a richer look and distinctive texture that helps the products pop off the black acrylic background. I worked from the top down to minimize the possibility of smudging. 

The top row of chips was coming along pretty well, as were the bananas. Then I struggled with making the asparagus and broccoli distinctive, and went to the grocery store for guidance – a frequent occurrence with this painting. With two green vegetables next to each other, I had to differentiate them better using color, shadow, and texture.

I expected the carrots to be easier given their orange color, but that wasn’t the case. This was my first time painting carrots (and most other veggies), and they didn’t look convincing until I added significant texture. And similar to the green vegetables, I wanted to make the yellow banana color distinctive from the corn. Again, texture played a big role in the solution.

Finally, the veggies were finished and I cranked my easel higher so I could paint the bottom row of sweets without hunching over. I love my crackable easel!

Choices was by far the most ambitious undertaking so far in this vending series. I had painted chips before, but this painting included only 6 chip bags. The Choices composition has 5 bags, 5 vegetables and 10 candy bars – with 20 complicated logos.

I had painted candy before too, but only 5 bars – not 10.

Last year, I even slipped in a single piece of broccoli. 

However, I had never tried them all together as I did in Choices.  When I showed this painting to a few people, they volunteered that they can see themselves standing in front of the vending machine trying to figure out what to buy. They related themselves to other indecisive people, often analytical people, weighing the pros and cons of the different eating experiences, and their relative prices. One of the neighborhood kids looked at Choices, and surprised me by picking broccoli as his favorite item! You never know…          

My frustration right now is that this painting is unfinished, and I can’t focus on it at the moment. However, since attending the Met Breur’s inaugural exhibit Unfinished, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

When I do complete this, you’ll be the first to know!