Candy Bowl Jelly Beans Watercolor Illustration
By Charlie

A Bowl Of Candy

Written by Charlie O'Shields

For our prompt of “Bowl” today, my mind leapt to jelly beans because a bowlful always makes me happy. Not that I eat an entire bowl, of course. In fact, we don’t have any type of candy at all at home. This is a good thing, I guess, in that it’s a just big empty calorie bomb, and I don’t have much will power when it comes to jelly beans. Though they don’t exist at home, they do sometimes at work, thanks to my clever ploy. When Philippe and I are shopping I can often get away with buying candy he’d never allow me to have with an earnest “it’s for my team at work!” This is quite true, in fact, but then I at least get to sample it. In truth, I really do just want to try it, but if I had a whole bowl to myself I’d try it until it was gone. I don’t like the idea of ever giving anything up, and as long as I keep everything in moderation, I won’t have to! My grandmother was eating jelly beans into her 90’s, so I figure I have a few more years of this simple pleasure to go. And, at only a handful of beans a month at most, it’s become a rare and magical treat indeed.

I like to tease Philippe for the things he doesn’t let me have, but I of course, I love him for the oversight. I might have my grandmother’s metabolism, but I lack her ironclad will power. I’ll cave at the first sight of a bowl of candy and dig in like a greedy child coming home on Halloween. But, that’s exactly what makes me love candy so much. I love feeling like a kid again and eating candy like an adult seems purposeless. I want to taste each little bean to find out the flavor! I want to bite the ends off of strawberry licorice and use it like a straw! I want to see how long I can suck on a lollipop before biting into it! These are the things that made candy more than sugar to me back when I was little and the same things that give it value for me today. And so, yep, only once a month these days, but I still indulge in a bit of candy. Each time, I’m transported back in time and it makes me feel young again, despite the wrinkles that continue to pop up on my face. I don’t care about those, but despite them, there’s no way I’ll ever let myself truly grow up.

As many of you know who’ve been reading along for awhile now, I adore autumn. Not just for the colder weather, but for all of the treats lie ahead! From the bits of Halloween candy that appear at work to the Thanksgiving feast that Philippe recreates even though he never celebrated this holiday before, to the rarest foods that only appear each year for us at Christmas. From savory to sweet, it’s an amazing time! But like most things in life, it’s more about the lovely traditions that reappear to remind me that life is blissfully cyclical. There’s not some long and always different path to some final end, but a lovely series of cycles that repeat themselves in beautifully unique ways. As much as I love and crave new things, I find my footing in the love of these annual rituals. They’re a reminder that no matter how much things change and shift in this world as it charges into the future, there are so many things that still connect us with our past. Bits of memories that blur, fade, and then reappear at just the right moment, like candy in a bowl.

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 Candy Bowl Jelly Beans Watercolor Illustration Sketchbook Detail

 

Charlie O'Shields

Creator of Doodlewash, founder of World Watercolor Month (July), World Watercolor Group, and host of the Sketching Stuff Podcast. Sharing watercolor illustrations and stories while proudly featuring talented artists from all over the world!

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30 thoughts on “A Bowl Of Candy”

  3. Love your post and your jelly beans Charlie! You never fail taking me back to my childhood. Makes me long for those days again! I get to relive my youth by reading your blog! Thanks for the memories 😁🤗

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  5. I’m the same way with jellybeans – but honestly, it’s all in the name of science. I mean, how will the world ever know how the metabolic effects differ between eating a bowl of popcorn and eating a bowl of popcorn jellybeans unless some brave soul is willing to sacrifice themselves to the experiment? SOmebody has to do it. Right?

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  6. Just last night I was listing for Joe the foods I’m hungry for. Hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy, minestrone, Peruvian baked chicken with green sauce, and pork hocks with sour kraut and dumplings. Fall obviously hit me like a ton of bricks. I also eat the candy of the season, but what I crave is cake. You really can’t have too much cake. 😂

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  8. Charlie, I don’t keep candy at home either. It would just be too tempting to binge eat the stuff. When I travel, I allow myself a few treats. Recently, we were in Seattle with our Australian friends and we splurged on two big packages of M & Ms. I hadn’t eaten any in ages. Boy, were they good! Now that we are in Maui, we are eating a bit more sensibly. I had my first dragon fruit for lunch today. Oh my! ❤️❤️❤️ Definitely will look for that fruit once I return to Canada. AND going shopping to look for more tomorrow. As I type this, I am being sensible…our dessert consists of fresh Hawaiian pineapple chunks in Greek yogurt with granola. I got to bed happy! Aloha Charlie from amazing Maui!

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  9. Yum…jelly beans. My mind instantly went to the huge jar of Jelly Bellies that have been hidden deep inside our pantry for the last year. And I never really liked them, especially at Easter, because they were always the VERY last things you’d eat from your basket. Jelly beans always signaled the end, but now, they’re fun. Sorting flavors, colors. It’s a game, and one that fortunately occupies me from popping 8 or so in while I sort. Phillipe is a good influence, Charlie. He needs to have his own column in DW too. And I’m quite curious as to what dishes he creates at Thanksgiving!

    And autumn? Not that you asked, but my favorite autumn thing is reddened cheeks and that fresh air smell one carries from the outside to the inside. They need to bottle that fresh, crisp air, alongside my beloved Honeycrisp apples!

    Good day, Charlie!

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Fanna! 😃💕Yeah, I wish I could get Philippe to write, but it’s all I can do to get him to paint occasionally. hehe For Thanksgiving he makes all of the American favorites, but from scratch and never a can, so it’s not quite the same thing I had growing up. 😉

      Oh, if someone could bottle that fresh crisp autumn air, they’d make millions! Love it! Good day to you as well!

      Reply

  10. Wow wow wow 🤩, It’s a sparkle colorful candy bowl, I love it, it’s a magical bowl, too, Charlie. Especially, I always keep my candies during my trips, If I’m hungry, candies save my life 🥰. I love to hearing the autumn is an amazing time, it’s my month he he 😉

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  14. Autumn is for sure the ‘bestest’ time of year!

    I keep a dish of jelly bellies on my coffee table.
    When friends come over, they are amazed that
    it’s always full. I have never told them that when
    I pour them into the bowl, I pick out all the pineapple
    ones and put in a bowl in the top drawer of my desk.
    I never buy just pineapple because there would
    surely be none left for my friends.

    Both article and painting make me smile a great big happy smile.

    Reply

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