Daily Paintings Challenge 3

Day 2. Macarons

Here’s another sweet treat, Macarons, that is more healthy than most. It has a delicate palette (and flavors!) that makes it an interesting composition. In that sense, it’s a slight departure from the more vibrant subjects I often paint.

 

“Macarons from DelRey Shop, Antwerp” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting, 16 x 20 inches on cradled wood panel

And now it’s true confession time. This is a larger 16 x 20″ version of a small 5 x 7″ Challenge painting that I did in 2015. You can see the differences in scale below. It certainly took a lot longer than a few days to paint (try weeks!) because of the size, details, and the individually mixed macaron colors.

I recently finished Macarons and thought this was the perfect time for its debut – especially since it certainly was a challenge!

Macarons required a lot of patience. The more I looked, the more I saw. Every time I put more detail in on one macaron, I had to add more to the surrounding macarons. At times, it felt like this was the painting that was never going to end. Finally I reached a point when I knew it was time to stop (confirmed by Bonnie when she exclaimed “Done!” after work), although the temptation to keep going was strong.

Thank you to Betty Heller for thinking of me and taking the original photo at DelRey shop in Antwerp.

My intention was to keep Macarons in reserve for a day when I wouldn’t be able to paint, which happened yesterday when we spent a chunk of the day with Noelle, a good friend from my Kraft General Foods days, and her family in New Jersey. It’s one our our holiday traditions. I wish I had celebrated this painting in style by bringing macarons for dessert, but I didn’t think about it until just now.

See you tomorrow for Day 3. Time to paint!

Day 1. Apples and Honey

“Apples and Honey” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled wood panel, 5 x 7 inches

I thought I would kick off the New Year with one of my favorite snacks, Apples and Honey. This tasty treat happens to be healthy and fits with one of my New Year’s resolutions to take care of myself.

This painting came easily, at least partly because I had been staring at the drawing and internalizing it so long that I had a clear vision in my head.

I started painting last week so I could take my time – but not too much time since it runs the risk of being overworked. One of the reasons I do the Challenge is to practice capturing the essence of a subject and stopping while the work still looks fresh.

It also helped that I bought a tube of turquoise oil paint, a vibrant color that I found almost impossible to mix with any consistency. And  Bonnie’s friend, Christina, gave her this jar of honey with the wand as a bridal shower favor, which I kept close by. The wand with the dripping honey is my favorite part of the painting.

I hope you and your family all have a sweet New Year! I wish you much health, happiness and peace.

New Year’s Painting Challenge, 2017

A few weeks ago, I decided to participate in the January 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (aka 30/30 Challenge), sponsored by Leslie Saeta.

My first Challenge was exactly 2 years ago. Some of my friends say I’m a glutton for punishment to do it again. I think I just love to paint, and am looking forward to creating art without distraction and the opportunity to explore new subjects.

I started preparing in December 1st by going through my photo archive (100,000 photos and growing rapidly) looking for a theme. So technically it takes at least 2 days per painting when you include all the prep time.

Of course, I thought about sticking exclusively with some aspect of food. I also considered travel, nature, sea shells, every day objects, and using old postcards (I have my mother’s collection that includes a dirigible!) or famous artists as inspiration.

This process took way more time than expected. I have more unfinished blogs in my head than ever before!

In the end, I didn’t settle on a single theme, as you can see from this table of prints in our family room. I am simply choosing subjects that spark joy. Sound familiar?

It’s a good thing I started early since most of my compositions are horizontal, and I’m short on 5 x 7 rectangular panels (vs. 6 x 6 square). Since my go-to art store, A.I. Friedman in Port Chester, is out of stock on this item, I just ordered 20 Ampersand Primed Smooth cradled wood panels from www.jerrysartarama, and velcro to keep the panels from moving (or falling off!) my large easels.

I also bought a few tubes of acrylic and oil paints.

Today my framer, Joe at Artistic services, cut some thicker, flatter wood strips to raise the panels higher off the easel. Thank you Joe for the quick turnaround! Now I can easily reach the bottom of the panels (to sign, and to photograph without pesky shadows from the “lip” of the easel.)

A brand new memory card just found its way into my camera, along with a fully charged battery.

Of course, no challenge would be complete without some technical glitches. This time it was my main email address, which is working again after spending a few hours deleting several thousand emails, with more to go tomorrow morning. Webmaster Laura is working feverishly on a mobile friendly version of this blog and website that downloads faster.

Tonight I’ll start organizing my studio between painting and watching the Fiesta Bowl (aka Playstation Fiesta Bowl but that’s not rolling off my tongue…). Ohio State is playing Clemson and I’m conflicted about who to root for since the Big Ten Buckeyes are arch rivals of my beloved Michigan Wolverines… So whatever you’re doing tonight, I wish you a….

P.S. Thank you Bonnie and Laura for creating my Bitmoji! Do you think it looks like me?