From Palate to Palette

The merits of crunchy versus creamy peanut butter are fiercely debated by enthusiasts, but for local artist Noah Verrier, there’s room for both. He likes crunchy for eating and creamy for his still life paintings, which often include PB&Js, gummy bears, jelly beans, and other nostalgic childhood treats. His compositions featuring craveable snacks and fast-food favorites have garnered wide attention, most recently from The New York Times and CBS Sunday Morning. But before he was a national sensation, he was a budding artist.

“As early as I can remember, I always liked working on still lifes,” Verrier shares. “When I was a kid, I was obsessed with doing these really simple flowers and vases.”

Growing up in Tallahassee, Verrier’s compulsion to create continued through adolescence and into his college years at Florida State University, where he earned both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree. There, he found a mentor in art professor and acclaimed local painter Mark Messersmith, who taught him the old masters’ methods and shared an inspiring new way to think about his craft.

“It was all about: Can you appreciate the great techniques from artists of the past like [Édouard] Manet and [Jean Siméon] Chardin, my two idols, and can you be a painter living today, carrying on those traditions, and mash them together with your contemporary ideas and contemporary subject matter?”

With mastery over his preferred media, oil paint, Verrier has taken on that challenge. Using the centuries-old, direct method known as “alla prima,” Verrier works quickly with a wet-on-wet approach that allows him to retain bold and gestural brushstrokes. Painting from life, he captures the edible arrangements he sets up in his studio. He’s never at a loss for new ideas because his daily lived experience is rich with possibilities, as he learned from another influential educator.

“One of my high school English teachers would say, ‘The greatest writers write what they know. They write what they’re familiar with.’ That stuck with me, and I’ve always thought that was the way to do it.”

By applying that sentiment to his own practice, Verrier is capturing our pop culture food scene in paint. From Taco Bell and Panda Express to Dr. Pepper and Dunkin’ Donuts, he’s depicting what he knows and is following in the footsteps of a long line of artists by doing so.

Photo courtesy of Noah Verrier

Still life painting dates back to ancient times, but it really gained momentum in the 1600s in the Netherlands. The term “still life” is derived from the Dutch word “stilleven.” Imbued with symbolism, these seventeenth-century paintings often hinted at the transience of life and the fleeting nature of worldly possessions.

Compositions from this era are filled with lush flowers, exotic fruits, vegetables, and game meats. Tables are laden with fragile glassware, delicate porcelain, and gleaming platters piled high with sumptuous delicacies from across the globe as a result of newly opened trade routes to distant lands. These paintings are a visual feast—a riot of color and texture with underlying themes of abundance, wealth, privilege, and conquest.

On the surface, Verrier’s paintings echo that tradition, and they attract a variety of viewers, each with their own interpretation of the intent and meaning behind the work. Some speculate that it must be a commentary about our consumerism culture, but Verrier notes that he’s not “putting that stamp on it,” though others can draw from it what they will.

“It’s more about this lineage of still life painters, just painting the simple things surrounding them that they’re familiar with,” he says. “I’m just grabbing things that are surrounding me today. I love the idea that they were just messing around too, pushing an envelope and doing something a little different.”

Verrier has an enormous following made up of individuals as well as well-known corporations. Many are eager to collaborate with him on a variety of projects, and several already have. He’s created artwork for brands like Samuel Adams beer and Olipop soda, teamed up with a publisher to produce a popular wall calendar, and there’s a deal in the works for a coffee-table art book. He’s also partnering with a health food company to complete a series featuring their frozen meals, and he’s been commissioned to create the cover art for an upcoming issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine.

When contemplating his life as a successful artist, after years of struggle through steadfast dedication to his creative development, Verrier shares, “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do. I just wanted to paint.

“I’m thankful every day, and I always try to have a grateful and very humble spirit about it. The fact that this has even happened has already blown my mind. I’m nothing but thankful every day.”