Year: 2017

Day 23. Lighthouse at Sunset

Lighthouse at Sunset is a momento of our sunset cruise out of Portland, Maine this past summer.

This was one of many lighthouses we found in our search for the Elusive Lighthouse Photo. After painting a lighthouse during the daytime, I thought I would try a lighthouse at dusk, against the dramatic orange and purple sky. Known as Bug Light for its small size, the Portland Breakwater Light has great views of the city’s skyline.

I’m lucky I got a painting done at all yesterday. Jay and I had a lovely time at the afternoon party. Then it took me a while to settle down and recalibrate.

Before dinner I had about 90 minutes. Here’s where I stopped to eat. At this point, the lighthouse was much lighter and the paint much thinner.

I kept going and thought I was done at a reasonable hour, though I would have liked more time (and daylight!) to experiment with grayish purple in the sky. After cleaning my brushes late, I came back into the studio and took a last look. The lighter grey backlit lighthouse didn’t fit with the integrity of the painting.

Then I darkened it so it was more in shadow. While I was much happier with the overall look, the paint became very wet and the drawing more imprecise. I forgot to paint in part of the roof on the lower fenced walkway, but the painting was too wet to attempt it. I will next week.

I like this painting more in person. I mixed a purplish grey for the cloud and water, but it comes through too strong in the photos. I took way too many photos this morning to try and get it right. Sometimes paintings just don’t photograph well. Or maybe I was just kidding myself because the camera doesn’t lie.

So I starting researching colors other artists use for clouds. After reading about Old Holland Blue Grey on an artist website, I decided to order it before I start a car hood ornament painting that has grey background clouds in it. Old Holland is still my favorite brand of paint, and naturally the most expensive. The blues are stunning but subtle. Not surprising since Holland is home to striking blue Deftware. The Dutch know their blues!

On to the next painting. I have the whole day so I can try something more intricate. Wish me luck!

Day 22. Egg on Stove

I’ve went back to the kitchen, home of Jay’s Spatulas, for Egg on Stove. I wasn’t ready to abandon the world of food.

 

Egg on Stove is my first stovetop and first single egg painting. This is a continuation of the Egg-centric series from the January 2015 Challenge, only those were all double-yolk eggs in various stages from raw, cooking, to partially cooked. Oh, I forgot the garbage disposal version.

 

Egg Series from the 30/30 Challenge, Oil paintings on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches.

In the post-Challenge world, I liked them so much that I executed a larger 16 x 20 series, this time including Egg on Purple Plate, which was exhibited in Cavalier Galleries in Manhattan.

A composite print evolved out of the 3 small challenge paintings.

Egg on Stove presents another viewpoint of an egg cooking on the stove. Instead of cropping in on the pan, I zoomed out to include the burner, grate, and knobs.

I worked on the drawing over several days. There was no room for error. Otherwise, my pencil drawings would show through the white.

The first stage was the subtlest light grey acrylic undercoating, which perhaps you can see here. It offers a bit of contrast to the white, and helps me see where I’ve painted before – and the spots I missed.

I had some cadmium yellow paint on my palette from Rainbow Cakes, and painted in the egg to anchor the painting visually. Next came the grate, the trickiest part, and the burners. A few lines were a little shaky, but they’ll be cleaned up after this dries so the white doesn’t muddy up.

With the background established, I could mix the appropriate greys for the pan. Basically Egg on Stove uses 3 tubes of paint – white, black and cadmium yellow – plus a dash of cadmium orange on the egg.

This was a painstaking process with lots of breaks. I worked slowly and methodically, keeping the painting surface smooth as befitting a stainless steel pan. Somehow the process was satisfying. Go figure. And I’m happy with Egg on Stove.

Jay and I are going to a combination anniversary-birthday lunch today, so I won’t have much painting time. I’ll be leaving my painting bubble for a few hours, which is welcome on one hand since my legs need a break (from standing while painting). At the same time, there’s a tinge of sadness and frustration that real life is encroaching. At the end of the Challenge, my growing to do list can’t be avoided for much longer.

Now I’ll shift my attention to Day 23. See you tomorrow.

Day 21. Rainbow Cakes

Even as a kid, I always looked forward to eating Rainbow Cakes. This platter was the ultimate. Maybe the title should be Rainbow Cake Heaven… After all, can one ever eat too many rainbow cakes?

In case you are wondering, here’s the whole platter.

The backstory is going to surprise you. Rainbow Cakes is dedicated to my friend, Bob Mawson, who passed away in 2014. I regularly attended Bob’s meditation class in Tarrytown for a few years. Here’s a photo of the young Bob.

Since Bob was ordained as a Buddist monk in Thailand, Bob’s wife, Marcia, held a very spiritual memorial service run by the monks in orange below. I’m sure Bob would have loved it. It was memorable to say the least.  All in white, Bob’s sons and wife spoke eloquently about his contributions to helping others as a healer and meditator around the world.

After the service was finished, the rainbow cake platter – an unforgettable image to this cake aficionado – magically appeared at the monks’ table.

I had intended to return to my comfort zone with a simple dessert painting for Day 21, after having a trying day yesterday when my egret painting failed. Total fail. I didn’t have time to recover since I hosted a woman’s group meeting at my house, and lost a whole day.

For Day 21, I was thinking about a single Oreo cookie, but no, I’m a glutton for punishment. In the end, I choose a complicated image, but cropped it so there were fewer rainbow cake pieces to paint.

I went ahead because I really wanted to try this, although I knew it wouldn’t be a piece of cake (pun intended). After all, I had already practiced a single rainbow cake in Plate of Cookies. Time went quickly while I was watching the inauguration, and I made major progress on the tri-colored cakes.

After dinner, I made them 3 dimensional, darkened the plate, and added in crumbs, my favorite item to paint (time for a cake?).

The pineapples stumped me. By cropping the composition, the amorphous pineapples shapes became prominent. The yellows of the pineapple and cake needed to be differentiated. It came down to the shadows to add interest.

Working on this reminded me of weaving. I went back and forth, in and out, hoping the pineapples would come together before the painting got too wet. I even printed out a larger image. This took a lot of patience.

At 1 am it hit me that we had a platter of fruit in the garage fridge with cut pineapple chunks. If only I had thought about this hours before! Studying these pieces helped, though they could be easily mistaken for cheese chunks.

The bottom line is that pineapple chunks are a challenge to paint so they don’t look like the yellow layers in the cake cake or cheese. I struggled and maybe it shows. My other pineapple experience was with Avocados, where I had to differentiate pineapple from mandarine oranges and mango. But these weren’t dominant items.

I’m not sure how successful I was with Rainbow Cakes, but I’m pleased I tried it. I have to control the impulse to keep working and fine-tune the cakes, and pat myself on the back for effort. Maybe I’ll come back to them later today (in my dreams…). 

 It’s fitting that these little cakes are commonly called rainbows which bring good luck. That’s how I felt when I met Bob. I’m lucky to have known him.

Thanks for coming by. See you tomorrow. Same time, same place.

Day 20. Peony

Last June, Jay and I woke up to this beautiful Peony in Nantucket.

Peony was a souvenir from the centerpiece of a wedding we had attended the night before. Normally there would be no point in taking flowers to a hotel room, but these were just too good to pass up.

Sara, the daughter of my longtime friend Jill from my Kraft General Foods days, got married on Galley Beach. The bride was beautiful!  It was a stunning event that even a little bit of rain couldn’t dampen. This is one of my favorite photos of the day with 3 generations  – with everyone smiling. Real smiles too. Jill is wearing the color coordinated peony-colored pashmina.

Nantucket light is beautiful, and I took advantage of it the when I snapped this photo the next morning.

I had intended to paint orchids today with more color and pattern rather than Peony. However, I think I was influenced by the fond memories in my choice of subject.

At first I planned to paint this with a soft tonality, which meant a light, if not white, background. I shifted gears when I kept hearing “be bold” in my head. And I was thinking, “Go big or go home”, an odd sports phrase that stuck in my head.

The idea for a black background popped into my head so the flower petals would have contrast. Is block bold enough for you, I was thinking? By anchoring the composition with an window on the left to reinforce the feeling of light, the painting avoided what I jokingly call the floating flower syndrome of previous flower paintings, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I just wanted to handle Peony differently here.

Clearly my thinking was influenced by my vending paintings which use black backgrounds. Until I starting painting candy in vending machines, I mostly avoided black. One tube of black oil paint lasted for 7 years.

The painting process went smoothly and I’m happy with the bold graphic quality of the outcome. Nothing like mixing it up a bit.

My next selection has to be relatively simple since I’m hosting my women’s group tonight. I’ll have to ponder this.

Until tomorrow. Have a good day!

Day 19. Snail Shell

It’s the middle of winter and I’ve been dreaming about going shelling on a warm beach, which was the inspiration for Snail Shell.

Jay and I found this snail shell during a summer walk along the water at Jones Beach on Long Island. Sometimes we have a lot of luck shelling up here in New York very early in the morning, as we did the day we found this colorful shell.

I was drawn to this by the swirling oranges against the greys and browns, and the irregular shape. I had always thought I would end up painting this exquisite nautilus from my mother-in-law, but that’s not where the spirit moved me today.

During a previous Challenge, I did a drawing of two Snail Shells, with the front and back views of different shells. While I very happy with the delicate pencil drawing, graphite can’t capture the variegated bold colors. As you can see here, I used the drawing as a reference for the painting.

Shells was coming along easily, which is what I had hoped since I had a evening meeting. It turned out the program ran late, and I was gone much longer than expected. Long enough for the browns in this painting to start drying so they were couldn’t blend (like acrylic!). I had forgotten what a fast drying color dark brown was, unlike titanium white which takes days.

When I did return to the easel, I had to repaint whole sections to blend the colors in the spirals together. Other than losing a little sleep, no harm was done.

In the light of day, I wasn’t tempted to touch it either as I took photos for this post. A good day.

On to tomorrow’s painting. Actually, I’ve been thinking about mapping out my paintings for the rest of the Challenge. So if you have any suggestions, it would be a good time to hear from you. Thanks!

Day 18. Lighthouse

Yesterday’s Lobster brought back fond memories of our Maine trip last summer. We visited as many lighthouses as we could find, which you can see in my post, The Elusive Lighthouse Photo.

On the very last day, we came across this Lighthouse, the most iconic of our trip, the Portland Head Light.

This is my first lighthouse painting, and it’s all about light and shade. Maybe I was unconsciously channeling Edward Hopper when I painted Lighthouse? Except I like his lighthouse paintings better.

This painting was a struggle. I had to stop working when the paint got too thick and too wet, something I wish I had been more careful about. For example, I wanted to darken the roof so it was brown, and I couldn’t. My most successful paintings of this Challenge were thinly painted, more like Hopper.

This time around, I laid in some of the finer details in acrylic paints. Painting wet-on-wet might have caused trouble with the juxtaposition of the dark green house trim and light walls (green bleeds easily into white and it’s hard to fix wet). I took this panel into the kitchen where I had a ready supply of water, and an open, flat counter.

It’s hard to see in the photo, but I used 3 very light washes (tints) of acrylic blue on the panel both to help the white lighthouse pop, and to prevent white hotspots (where the paint doesn’t cover). Then I painted the trim as planned. The last minute I decided to paint the roof.

Here’s where I stood when I moved out of the kitchen back into the studio.

I went with the house first to get the feeling of sunlight shining on the white walls.

Looking at this now, I realize that painting the roof in brown oil would been a better choice, skipping the acrylic underpainting. Unlike oil, I couldn’t scrape the dried acrylic paint off. Every medium has own pros and cons. The acrylic alizaron/red kept coming through no mater what I put on top of it. The sky was next to help define the lighthouse.

When I got to the bottom, I put in the greens and greys for the rocks and shrubbery, and it looked like mud on my first try. I used a paper towel to wipe the whole thing off.

Second time around, I started with a lighted yellow ochre on the rocks, with the intention of putting grey texture over that. Rocks have more color than you think, and are tricky to pain. I need to give Winslow Homer more credit for his craggy, dramatic Sprout’s Neck rocks.

I think this painting still needs work. Maybe I’ll touch things up after it’s dry. Maybe not. Once I put these little paintings down, the reality is that I rarely get back in the zone.

Do I want to borrow time from my next painting today? No.

So on to Day 19. I wonder what today will bring.

Day 17. Lobster

Continuing with the water theme from yesterday’s Lotus and Koi (Day 15) with its intense orange red color, I bring you Lobster. Only this is edible.

This past summer we went to Maine, where Jay pursued his passion for eating lobster. My role was to document his search for the perfect lobster since I’m allergic to shellfish. One day we took a boat ride from Northeast Harbor in Acadia to Little Cranberry Island.

We encountered today’s lobster at Little Cranberry Lobster right at the end of the dock (nice to have sign photo to remind you).

Doesn’t look like this lobster tank has painting possibilities, does it?

But it does. I just had to squat down to find this lobster resting against the glass. I got a kick out of this image for a few reasons. First, it’s an unusual view but still telegraphs “lobster.”. Second, the tight composition captures the trapped feeling of a lobster in a cage (as if lobster have feelings!), reinforced by the turquoise jail bars in the upper right.

Before starting, I realized I didn’t understand the anatomy of this lobster. There were little claws, legs and antennas seemingly coming out of nowhere. Were they part of this lobster, or others in the tank? Who has ever studied the bottom of a lobster?

I brought out the big guns for this one – my iPad, magnifying glass, and I made a large 8 1/2 and 11 inch print.

I taped all the photos to one of my easels since I was incorporating elements from each one. They especially came in handy for the little teeny baby claws that I never knew existed before on lobsters (did you?), in addition to the big claws typically associated with lobsters.

Early on I switched rubber band colors from yellow to the turquoise and lavender combination from Thurston’s Lobster (upper left lobster in the pot) to add interest.

When I discovered the yellow ones were Little Cranbery Lobster branded rubber bands, I felt badly for a moment. Almost guilty, like I was doing a documentary and got my facts wrong. Ultimately I got past this by keeping creative license in mind.

Here is where I stopped last night since my brushes were getting very muddy, and I wanted to keep the colors clean and bright.

I finished up this morning, mortgaging two hours of Day 16’s painting time, but it worth was it. (I say that now; talk to me later…)

Time to start Day 17. Feeling a little bit of self-imposed pressure today. I better put on some relaxing music. Thanks for coming by!

Day 16. Lotus

Yesterday’s Koi was a tough act to follow. But it inspired me to return to water imagery and paint one of my favorite flowers, Lotus. I felt mellow while  working on this quiet, peaceful subject that often appears in my meditation videos.


You would be surprised to find out how hard it is to get a beautiful image of a lotus with shimmering light shining down through its transparent leaves. I had looked on the web a while back when I was doing a white lotus commission, but the client eventually provided her favorite photo.

The inspiration for this painting came from our visit to the New York Botannical Gardens (NYBG) on Jay’s birthday in 2015. We went to see the Frido Kahlo Show, featuring this recreation of her home garden.

It was a beautiful day to tour the NYBG and perfect for taking water pictures. The skies were blue, the water gleaning, and the angle of the light was just right to cast reflections.

I liked the pink lotus in the left and zoomed in on it. That’s the one I went with for Day 16.

Multiple photos were used as source materials. While I started this painting in daylight, I painted most of it during the evening. There’s always a little bit of trepidation when I come downstairs the next morning. You never know if your painting is going to look good or not. This one did.

Painting itself was pretty straightforward. You probably already know the drill. I started with the blue water, then the green lily pads. I switched to the dark reflection for contrast and depth (dark over the lighter water), making sure that the transparency came through, and letting the wobbly shapes define the slightly rippling water.

Then I turned the lotus leaves, cognizant of overlapping forms and shadows; struggling a little with the color (need to order magenta paint). Towards the end, the highlights were re-worked throughout, and contrasting edges were added around the lily pads.

These gentle greens and pinks were surprising hard to photograph.  The greens come out too acidic (disappointing but a give-up since this is the Challenge), which I could fix if I had Photoshop. The color in the partially finished painting above is closer to the real thing – which is delightful in person.

I’m a little over halfway through the Challenge, and running out of space on my piano. I’m happy with my progress – even if I’m a bit behind after going to the New York Philharmonic on Saturday night (couldn’t resist Beethoven and Brahms) and having lunch with a good friend yesterday. It felt better when I was ahead of the curve.

On to Day 17. I’m planning to find a way to give myself some breathing space, perhaps with a drawing latter this week. Hope you stop by tomorrow.

Day 15. Koi

I bring you my very first fish picture with Koi. 

When I look that this painting, I just grin. It makes me happy.

That’s the most important thing for you to know about Koi. So is this blog post finished? Or maybe that would be unfair since this is unlike anything I have ever done in my lifetime – or ever would without the Challenge – and deserves more. Besides, Koi sparks joy just writing about it.

Like many things in life, this seems like it came out of nowhere. However, it’s been years in the making – in my head. I am fond of Asian art, especially Japanese woodcuts, where I first discovered images of intriguingly patterned carp, first bred in Japan for color in the 1820s according to Wikipedia. For years I have been taking photos of ponds to capture the fish, their bubbles, and reflections. It’s kind of like a crap shoot.

This particular composition was inspired by a trip to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida last winter. I started with the long views to shoot the reflections, and then moved in closer.

I love these little mouths. Either these fish like attention, or were hungry since followed us although we didn’t have any food.

This was the winner. It felt like the little guy was speaking to me.


After 14 Challenge paintings, I finally got up the courage to try this dramatically cropped composition with intense red color. I zoomed in closer and added some bubbles to provide interest and balance. Bubbles are fun to paint, which I found out when painting Double Yolk Eggs Raw.

After working with blue bowl in Niçoise Salad, I knew that cobalt blue would give me the color intensity I wanted.

That’s where I began. I painted in the color and when used a giant flat brush to smooth out the brush strokes so the bubbles would pop.

Then I went for the hot red colors to give the forms definition.

I ended with the highlights and eyes, which really brought Koi to life.

Of all the paintings I did so far, I had the most fun painting and writing about this one.  I hope you enjoyed it too.

Day 13. Cheese

Did you know that painting slabs of cheese are just like painting cakes? That’s what I discovered for the first time when I painted Cheese.

For years, people suggested painting cheese but I thought it would be boring. Then I saw this little gem of a painting by Wayne Thiebaud at his 2014 Aquavella Gallery retrospective, and I started rethinking that position. That’s the night I finally met my hero in person.

When I came across this elaborate, richly textured cheese display at Whole Foods at Columbus Circle in New York City, I had to take a photo on the way to the deli counter for dinner. What a store! Everything looks extraordinary.

The fact that the cheese counter caught my eye at all was surprising since we were in such a hurry to eat dinner in between MOMA and the New York Philharmonic. The concert featured pianist prodigy Daniil Trifonov – which I wouldn’t have remembered at all if it wasn’t for this photo of Daniil and I (and Jay in the back) in the Green Room. Excuse this little digression, but he’s a fantastic pianist! Maybe another Horowitz or Richter, in my humble opinion.

When I came across the cheese photo recently, I knew I had to try my first cheese painting. I did the sketch and started painting the shadows in oil to work out the structure.

Oops! I forgot the acrylic underpainting I had intended to put under the signs (black) and the textured rinds (brown).

Since acrylic dries in 15 minutes, it would be a whole lot easier to paint the lettering and textures over a dry surface. However, it wasn’t too late, as I had only started the shadows. As long as I didn’t let the acrylic touch the oil, I would be ok, and I went ahead.

While the acrylic was drying, I studied the details of the rinds with a magnifying glass, a Hanukah present from Jay. Believe it or not, it was my favorite present!

The magnifying glass has several benefits: timesaving, lightweight, and large enough so I can look at the photo and painting at the same time. In the past, I had to go upstairs, find the photo on my desktop, email it to my iPad, and balance the iPad while painting to keep the blown up image close to me. Awkward, to say the least. In this case, low tech was the way to go.

After the shadows, I focused on the rinds. That’s when I realized painting rinds were just like painting icing on cake. The round Gouda was shaped like a cake. The quarters of cheese reminded me of partially eaten wedges of cake. All those hours of painting cake shadows came in handy in this painting.

I unexpectedly felt at home working on Cheese, and had a good time the whole evening right up until I signed the painting (etched my name with a nail is more accurate). That’s the way painting should feel all the time. A far cry from my experience  on Day 10. Strawberry Blueberry Tart. I’m grateful to put that behind me.

I haven’t figured out what I’m painting today. Got to get to work! Bye for now.

Day 14. Niçoise Salad

I sure am ready to dig into this Niçoise Salad with all its fresh ingredients! It’s my favorite salad these days.

Let me introduce Chef Bonnie who whipped this Niçoise salad together for dinner one night. Look at how happy she looks as a kitchen chef! And look at those arm muscles from Pilates. No iron pot would be too heavy for her!

Niçose salads started magically appearing after we took a family trip to Paris, which were served everywhere. Not surprising since they originated in Nice. I remember eating a particularly outstanding salad in the garden restaurant outside the Lourve. Here’s Chef Bonnie and Webmaster Laura, my co-conspirators in art and life.

Bonnie’s version of Niçoise salad includes tuna, green beans and potatoes, the staples of niçoise salads, plus eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. I add my own olives which Bonnie skips since she’s not a fan.

The first basic decision I had to make was whether to set the bowl against a white tablecloth or dark granite background. At the time, I wanted to capture the translucency of the bowl, which I thought might get lost against a dark background.  The flip side of that is the lighter colored food with its subtle greens, similar to Sushi in that respect, would have popped more.

What would you have done? Maybe I’ll try it again someday.

This was a painting that needed to be done in daylight. Too bad I ended up painting the food at dusk. I struggled with the bowl from the beginning. The biggest issue for the color. Either the blue was too vibrant, too dark, or too muddy. I went with a cobalt blue, with the tiniest touch of ultramarine blue in it. And since blue is not typically a food color, I’m not used to working with it.

When I woke up the next morning, the above is what I found – a rather pale composition which needed to be punched up.

My favorite part of this painting is the potatoes, which are well defined by their dark skins, and maybe the eggs. When I got to the cucumber seeds, I went to the refrigerator for the real thing, which you can see on the easel.

This painting got too wet to work on. In retrospect, I wish I had thought about laying down the darks in acrylic behind the tuna chunks, artichokes, and cucumbers. Isn’t hindsight wonderful? I might have gotten more contrast on the food, which would have helped with the shadows too. I didn’t know what to use for the shadows since blues and purples clashed with the bowl, and greys looked muddy.

In the end, Niçoise Salad has a quiet presence to it in real life. And I’m glad I did it. It brought back pleasant memories – with much anticipation for the future (hint, hint Chef Bonnie…).

On to Day 14, wherever it takes me.

Day 12. Jay’s Spatulas

We’re in the kitchen today where still lifes, such as Jay’s Spatulas, continue to delight me in the morning – assuming I started the dishwasher the night before.

I’m not exact sure why I enjoy my husband’s post-dishwasher creations so much, but I do.

“Jay’s Spatulas”, by Beverly Shipko, Oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches

I’ve been taking photos of them for years, some of which you can see in this 2015 Challenge post.

My intent was to publish a downloadable book of his arrangements, and dedicate it to Jay and all other under-appreciated husbands in the world. Jay does a lot around the house, probably more than most husbands do (laundry too!), and doesn’t get the recognition for his contributions on a daily basis. But then, who does? Although my intentions are noble, I haven’t actually published the book yet, just gathered an extensive spatula photo collection.

And so I dedicate this painting to you, Jay Sloofman, as my way of saying thank you for being you, even though I may not say that every day. You’re a wonderful husband, and much appreciated – always! You are a bright light in all of our lives. A special thank you for supporting me during the Challenge. You make it possible. 🙂

Spatula Artist, Jay Sloofman

Back to the spatulas. It’s important to understand that Jay started this on his own – not for paintings – and has been since we got married 37 years ago. His background as a Cornell Hotelie graduate and former restaurant employee permanently rubbed off on him. He’s in the habit of alternating utensils up and down to efficiently maximize counter space.

You can see my feet here on a step stool I keep handy to help capture these transient “installations”, if you will. I still called these grouping “spatulas” since they seem to anchor the compositions, and they were our first utensil purchase. Spatulas for eggs and spoons for soup and stews.

I consider Jay’s Spatulas a classic composition. It’s simple with 4 spatulas in it, some of which are multicolored, lots of black for contrast, spoons, and an ice cream scooper that Bonnie taught us to use for meatballs. It documents how times have changed and manufacturers livening up our every day kitchen life with the advent of brilliantly colored silicon utensils. The earlier black and white drawing couldn’t capture this dimension.

Jay’s Spatulas immortalizes one of our oldest spoons, the white one which partially melted in the dishwasher years ago. Somehow I have a sentimental attachment to that spoon. But then you know I like painting partially consumed food and other less than perfect things, so it mades sense in that context.

From the beginning, this painting just came together. Maybe that’s because it had been on my mind for so long. That’s not to say it wasn’t hard. It required a lot of very small brush work to keep those lines straight and the paint smooth.

I started with the background, then the colors, ending with the black, when my hand felt extra steady. I’ve been thinking I have to look into buying one of those hand bracing bars that attach to easels to minimize shaky lines.

I was glad I began this painting during the day, both for the natural light and the warmth. Even then, it was frigid outside and the fireplace (on the right in the photo) let in so much cold air that I was freezing after barely starting to sketch. Not a good thing. I opted for warmer attire that let me paint comfortably in my studio through the evening.

As I write this, the frigid temperatures have broken and I’m looking forward to going back into the studio in normal attire.

See you tomorrow!

Day 11. Sushi

A Sushi surprise! How’s this for a change of pace? Sushi is my first non-dessert painting of the Challenge. And it’s ironic that it’s the first time I craved what I was painting!

Perhaps you’re expecting me to say that this came from an exotic Japanese restaurant in the city or a fancy Westchester venue. I did hunt for good looking sushi in mid-town Manhattan on two separate days when I went to the United Nations and Japan Society. My photos were of packaged sushi with labels blocking the artistry of the food. I’ll have to go back another time with a shopping bag, buy the sushi, and go home so I can open it up.

Then one evening Jay recently walked through the door with this vegetable sushi (my favorite) called Naruto Maki from DeCiccos, the local Ardsley grocery store. This small tray spoke to me.

Notice how cucumber is used  in Naruto Maki instead of seaweed and rice on the outside, and or a rice paper wrap. You can see the other kinds in this party platter from Laura’s welcome home celebration.

We all dug into the small tray – after I took a series of photos. It’s interesting how different angles completely changed the look, but this classic view was the image in my mind’s eye.

The palette is subtle and very limited, which made it both hard and easy to paint at the same time. The hard part was mixing those subtle greens for the avocado and the cucumber, which looked so similar but needed to be somehow differentiated.  I played with the avocado color more than expected. My initial color mix had a hint more yellow in it, but it seemed to clash with the tray. The delicate colors in Sushi were challenging to photograph, which has more presence in person.

Usually I find it easier to work with a limited palette, especially in a short time frame (remember my eggs?), with fewer color decisions to make. The cleanup is much easier too.

The  composition was appealing because the 10 pieces of sushi aren’t perfect. There’s a broken one and one piece is unwrapping.

I worked carefully and slowly, leaving the background white so the sushi and the tray would pop. At the end, when I went to put in the wasabi and that piece of fake greenery at the top, the painted wasabi looked like a big blob of indeterminate nature.

So I got out a box of Q-tips (my secret cure for mistakes), carefully used several to take that section out without touching the sushi, and repainted the transparent fake grass. It was tense for a half hour since I loved the painting and hated the blobby thing, which almost ruined the whole painting.

This is a subject that I know I’ll return to eventually. Just maybe not for this challenge.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you tomorrow.

Day 10. Strawberry Blueberry Tart

Keeping with the Grand Central inspired dessert theme (Day 9. Cranberry Cheesecake and Day 7. Rugelach), here’s a Strawberry Blueberry Tart from Financier Patisserie that I have been wanting to paint for a long time.

A few years back, I did this 3 x 4 food oil painting of Financier’s pastry display.

I always thought the heroes of this work were the brilliantly colored tarts. Painting a single strawberry tart was on my mind for a few years. This was my chance. Can you tell which one I was inspired to paint?

Although today’s tart painting turned out pretty good, most of the day was a painting fail. I was going to use the word “disaster” but it sounded too Trumpian.

The plan was to do a piece of key lime pie on a plate with a fork. However, I started putting paint on the 5 x 7 inch panel sketch before realizing the plate in my sketch looked distorted. I tried different lines, colors and backgrounds to camouflage it, but the painting couldn’t be saved. The structural problem might have been solved if I cropped the composition in a square format.

In previous blogs, you’ve heard me talk about paintings that I thought were lost, but were saved after I kept going. This time I decided I didn’t want to save this one. It wasn’t worth it when I had another painting sketched and ready to go.

Now I had 16 brushes to clean, and not a painting to show for it!

At 7pm after a dinner break, I refined the sketch, added a blueberry in the center, and fixed structural issues before putting paint to the panel (yes, I can learn from my mistakes!) I stopped painting at around 1am, satisfied that I had saved the day with a valiant if not rushed effort, and I could rest easy.

I picked up the painting again this morning on 6 hours sleep and spent over hours (my time limit) adding the seeds, completing the strawberries, and putting shadows on the pastry. Done. Proud.

This was a humbling experience, and a reminder not to get too cocky after having a good, relatively easy first week.

Sometimes failure is good, as long as it doesn’t happen too many times during the Challenge…

Day 9. Cranberry Cheesecake

I wanted to do something a little wild and crazy today. So I went with this mini Cranberry Cheesecake, my first selection ever from Magnolia Bakery.

For years I have been wanting to paint a Magnolia treat, but either the baked goods didn’t look “pretty” enough or there were too many people waiting in line crowded around the cases blocking the view. Magnolia Bakery is very popular in Manhattan!

In December, I took the train into Manhattan to meet my friend Dennis for lunch at the United Nations before he retires, and it was earlier than usual to allow time to go through extensive security checks.

I walked by the Magnolia stand in Grand Central Station and saw rows of these beauties – and no one blocking the view. Full disclosure: As you can see here, the proper title of this is Vanilla Bean Cheesecase with Cranberry Topping. A bit cumbersome for my purposes.

It was my lucky day. All the stores in Grand Central looked stunning and were stocked to the gills for the holidays. This was the same day I spotted the Day 7. Rugelach. I also found these multicolored olives, which I was considering for a painting, but thought it might come out looking too psychedelic to be believable.

Cranberry Cheesecake was much more fun to paint, although I admit to having doubts about this two hours into it. However, I kept plugging away with strong encouragement from Bonnie, who somehow knew this would work. After many hours it came together.

I experimented with the cascading berries and dripping juice, taking creative license and adding some of both. I picked a light blue background for some contrast to the cheesecake, but not too much so the cranberries could “pop”.

The trick was to paint the cheesecake itself in first so I could play with the translucent glaze. I uses various shades of red and layers of alizaron crimson, which is what made the darker berries 3-dimensional. The more alizaron I used, the more depth there was, and the more this painting came alive. It’s all about the highlights!

Thanks for coming by today!