Steve Casino Transforms Peanuts into miniature Pop Culture figurines.
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST IN A NUTSHELL
Steve Casino, a Cincinnati-based artist, is a self-described peanut artist who likes to paint incredibly small portraits on peanuts.
His project started back in 2012 after many attempts with trial and error.
The idea came to him while…while eating peanuts of course!
As he describes his experience:
“It occurred to me while eating peanuts one day that many of the shells looked like the heads and torsos of people. I found the right shape and made a quick caricature of myself on it with a marker.”
The first celebrity that arrived in a peanut shape was Freddy Mercury.
Making peanuts paintings on shells look like tiny celebrity characters took the world by storm and his works became viral on Social Media. Since then his audience simply exploded.
“I was looking for something unique to work on,” the peanut artist says because “There are 10 billion people painting on canvases, and it’s hard to stand out from the crowd.”
The Process Of Making Peanuts Paintings
The first part consists in adding bamboo limbs, and wire.
After that, he uses polymer clay to refine the shape of the character and fills the shell with foam to ensure the nut doesn’t crack.
To harden up the clay the oven is used for baking it.
And the final step of course is painting them with acrylics.
These tiny works of art can take up to 20 hours for him to complete.
The Peanut Artist
The miniature artist now receives many commissions creating Pop Culture figurines from artists that want to “Live Forever” (like Freddy’s song) in a peanut form.
The amazing painted peanuts have received 2016 the Certificate of Recognition issued by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.
Casino’s work has also enjoyed worldwide shows in Shangai, Hong Kong, and Chicago.
Let’s enjoy some of his magical mini sculptures.
You can follow his latest works on his Instagram (@stevecasino), TikTok (@stevecasino), Facebook (@painterofnuts), and Twitter (@stevecasino1) to see more of his incredible artwork.
