Mini Pizza Appeal! (with green bell peppers)

This one's for all you vegetarians, My previous pizza had pepperoni topping, and now I have created this pizza painting with fresh green bell peppers as a topping! This one is smaller, so it's more of a "personal pan pizza' or "mini-pizza", hence the title!

Pizza’s my favorite food because it’s just so mouth-waterin’ yummy, satisfying and yet plentiful and convenient; not to mention, cheap. There’s a pizzeria in every town, isn’t there, and don’t they ALWAYS deliver? You can get a slice for about $2.50 here in New York and it’s a no secret that we have the best Pizza here, of course! Now I KNOW, that some folks will argue that the “Chicago-style” or deep dish pizza, is just as good if not better, but we discriminating, persnickety New Yorkers like the italian stuff with a nice (semi-thin) burnt crust, and just dripping with greasy goodness! Sometimes it’s so greasy you have to drip or blot the excess out on a paper plate or napkin!

A fun way to serve pizza is on a “Peel”, or wooden pizza tray and that’s how I’ve presented my "trompe l'oeil" pizza art here. Although this is not an "actual" pizza peel, it does resemble one, and it is wooden. (In reality this is a vegetable or cheese cutting board, so it's smaller than a typical pizza peel).

A typical pizza "Peel" is a long-handled, wide wooden spatula-like implement that pizza pros use to quickly whiz pizzas into and out of burning hot ovens. It slides quickly and easily under the pizza crust, keeping hands safely out of the hot fiery oven.

To create the artwork on this wooden slab, I first laid down a blend of spackle or joint compound for texture, mixed with gesso in a round circle on the peel, and let it dry overnight. When it was completely dry, there was a textured support ready for the pizza paint to be applied. I proceeded to add each layer of paint, in the same way a pizza-maker would add the items to the dough.

I thought what a fun, whimsical idea to paint a pizza on this board! It’s a perfect conversation piece at your table when serving pizza, or hanging on your wall, since it does have a leather hanger threaded through the hole in the handle to hang.

As I mention, it measures approx. 12x7.5x.75", and is ready to hang. I have signed it on the back.