Will Paint For Food: Daily Paintings Of Food That Help Feed The Hungry

This year I’m starting a new project called “Will Paint for Food”. No, I’m not a starving artist, but there are certainly a lot of people who go hungry in this country and around the world. The idea is simple. I will be doing small paintings of food every day (or so) and putting them up for sale on my blog. The profit from every sale will be donated to help feed the hungry.

I got the inspiration for “Will Paint For Food” over the holiday break from my job in advertising. I started doing a new painting every day, and after a couple of sessions I was hooked. But I didn’t want my paintings to just sit in my studio; I wanted to put them out into the world. Somehow just putting them up for sale didn’t feel right. I wanted give them more meaning and purpose. Since most of my pictures were of food, using them to help the hungry felt like a natural fit.

I think food is beautiful. There is infinite variety, detail, and color to be discovered. All you have to do is look closely. It’s something that is so basic and vital to all of us, yet something we often take for granted. In my paintings I study how light hits and reflects, at the textures and colors.

Daily painting has been a wonderful discovery for me. It was pioneered by Duane Keiser in 2004 and has since been adopted by hundreds of artist around the world. Committing to doing a new painting every day pushes you to experiment with techniques and subject matter. There is a shift from concept and subject to simply painting and experimenting, which is incredibly liberating. It also yields a lot of paintings, which I hope will make a difference in the world.