Junk Food, High Art

Last week, Noah Verrier bought a box of crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from a Publix grocery store.

He unwrapped one and studied its pale, spongy exterior. He took a bite. The sunlight in his studio illuminated a droplet of strawberry goo.

Where others might have seen a Smucker’s Uncrustables sandwich, Mr. Verrier saw a muse. He spent two days capturing its likeness in a moody oil painting — and then sold that original painting for just under $5,000 in an online auction that ended Sunday.

Mr. Verrier, 44, an artist who lives in Tallahassee, Fla., has carved out a lucrative niche on social media with his still life paintings of junk food. He has rendered greasy cheesesteaks, extra-large sodas and dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets in delicate brushstrokes.

“I always try to eat something before I paint it, just to have that connection with it,” he said in an interview on Monday.

Mr. Verrier paints his subjects alla prima, a technique favored by the Impressionists that involves the layering of wet paint. Then, unlike the Impressionists, he blasts them out on his social media accounts: His Uncrustables painting has been viewed more than 12 million times on X.