Help! I Can't Hold All of These Pumpkins!

 

10x8in. oil on Ampersand Gessobord - click to purchase here

"Why can't I hold all of these lemons?" Alternatively, "well, when life gives you lemons!"

I love composing still life compositions and adding humor and play to them. This lil dude (a wine holder) just can't hold all of his pumpkins. Poor guy.

Blood Drunk

 

6x8in. oil on Ampersand Gessobord - click to purchase here

Halloween is never over for me! Dracula's tea time treat: a cup of warm blood (in this case, alizarin crimson oil paint).

Bottom's Up!

 

14x11in. oil on canvas - click to purchase here

At a local pumpkin patch there is a cool band of pirates. They sing songs and are illuminated by colorful LED lights at night, but there's one particular pirate who always caught my eye: a pirate enjoying his booty that is actually a fountain! Everytime I go to this pumpkin patch I make a beeline for this display. It's so fun to see how he progresses in his sense of style each year.

Las Plagas

 

7x5in. oil on canvas panel - not available

The parasites, Las Plagas are slaves to my will. I have absolute control.

I bought this little prop vial of Las Plagas as a gift for my husband and couldn't help but paint it for a spooky Halloween show. We both love Resident Evil 4 and the famous Leon Kennedy quotes.

Where's everyone going? Bingo?

This painting was submitted as a prize to Awesome Games Done Quick back in January 2025 to benefit the Prevent Cancer foundation. 25/52

Spooky Cat at the Circus

 

7x5in. oil on canvas panel - sold

What's better than a Halloween kitty? One of my many Michaels purchases, I couldn't help but put this lil guy on a comander deck holder and paint him. I love the oranges in his outfit and I think they make his eyes pop. 24/52

Iridescent Skull

 

6x6in. oil on Ampersand Gessobord - click to purchase here

What's in the skull? A mysterious elixer, or a concoction of poison? Do you dare taste the forbidden juice?!

I had a lot of fun with this painting. The skull bottle is see through glass and I knew I wanted a very dramatically lit prop, so I set up some LEDs and turned the lights off. I'm excited to be working on Halloween paintings again, streaming on Twitch!

Candy Corn

7x5in. oil on canvas panel - click to purchase here; click to purchase prints here

I love candy corn! I was shopping around Michaels when I saw this cute glass pumpkin and knew I wanted to fill it with candy corn and paint it. To be honest, this composition was incredibly daunting to me. I really didn't know how I was going to approach painting the candy corn inside the glass pumpkin and near the end it was just blobs of yellow, orange and white. Trusting myself to squint my eyes and paint what I saw, everything really started pulling together when I painted on the dark lines to represent the folds in the glass. I filmed the progress of this painting and will be available to watch on my Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook! Completing this painting inspired an upcoming painting that will consist of various Halloween candies that I enjoy. 10/52

Zack

8x8in. oil on Blick Premier Artist's Panel - click to purchase here; click to purchase stickers here

And here is part 2 of today's 2-parter post! On Halloween my husband and I carved pumpkins and I loved them so much I just HAD to paint them! These two paintings were really tough, but I'm glad that I previously painted the "Radiant Pumpkin" painting as prep work for these two paintings. My husband's pumpkin was named Zack and when I went to paint him I put 3 candles in him this time, resulting in a much brighter pumpkin. I will note that editing this photo to look as close to the painting as possible was easier than the "Howie" photo.  I really like the thick "light" brushstroke, making your highlights thick gives them an extra oomph to stand out.

Howie

8x8in. oil on Blick Premier Artist's Panel - click to purchase here; click to purchase stickers here

Today's post is a 2-parter! On Halloween my husband and I carved pumpkins and I loved them so much I just HAD to paint them! These two paintings were really tough, but I'm glad that I previously painted the "Radiant Pumpkin" painting as prep work for these two paintings. My pumpkin was named Howie and when I went to paint him I only put 1 candle in him. I will note that it was pretty difficult to edit this photo to look as close to the painting as possible. I really like the thick "light" brushstroke, making your highlights thick gives them an extra oomph to stand out.

Radiant Pumpkin

7x5in. oil on canvas panel - click to purchase here; click to purchase prints here; click to purchase stickers here

This was my first attempt at painting strong, dramatic lighting alla prima. I had this cute pumpkin glass jar and I tucked fairy lights into it while I set up my black box in my bathroom to give the appropriate level of darkness to let this piece shine. The fairy lights were these beautiful specks against the glass and made the glass warp in delicious ways. I liked choosing to put the subject against the corner of my blackbox, the way that the seams between panels point towards the subject really draw your attention even more to the light source. 8/52

Illuminated Halloween Skull

7x5in. oil on canvas panel - not available; click to purchase stickers here

Halloween-time is my favorite season and this was the first Halloween my husband and I celebrated together. We often light our spaces with Christmas lights and candles, but the way that the light was shining on this skull from Michaels was absolutely stunning and spooky. I used so many colors of oil paint just to make the ranges of reds, pinks, purples and oranges right. A lot of quinacridones and reds were used in the making of this painting. I love this painting so much and feel like it encapsulates who I am as a painter that I turned this painting into my business card! If you place an order from my shop, you will receive my business card, or a "mini print", as I like to call it. 3/52