Junk food still-lifes go viral

A classically trained artist’s oil paintings of junk food have gone viral, with a moody portrait of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich fetching almost $5,000 in a recent online auction. As a student of fine arts, Noah Verrier was introduced to still lifes of flowers and fruit baskets by French painters such as Édouard Manet, but found himself drawn to more modern culinary inventions, The New York Times wrote.

He now deploys Impressionist techniques to depict chicken nuggets, cheesesteaks, and a TikTok favorite, the purple McDonald’s Grimace Shake. “I always try to eat something before I paint it, just to have that connection with it,” Verrier told The Times.