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I painted the highlights on the tipped flute, at right,
and on the green glass bottle, and added the objects’
reflections on the wood counter in the foreground, which
accentuated the vertical lines in the composition.5
After the surface was completely dry, I drew the design
on top of the pizza box, using sharpened blackboard
chalk. I find chalk a useful tool for drawing on canvas.
White chalk is colorless and readily dissolves in oil paint,
leaving no trace of a line. To paint the box design, I added
alizarin crimson and viridian to my palette and carefully
delineated the design with a small round watercolor brush.6
In order to balance the left
side of the composition with
the colorful pizza box, I filled the
upright flute with watered-down beer,
producing a pale golden liquid, and
painted it with a mixture of titanium
white, cadmium orange, cadmium
yellow and raw umber. Next, I added
the printing on the bottle’s label.7
Pizza & Champagne (oil on canvas board, 11x14) depicts a kitchen
counter with this simple, celebratory and unconventional food and drink
combination—something like the party fare those New York residents had
enjoyed, the evidence of which was left for me to discover.