#30paintingsin30days

Day 28. Blueberry Cheesecake

Another blueberry dessert for my Maine show, this time from Magnolia Bakery in NYC.

If this image looks vaguely familiar, it’s because I painted Magnolia’s Cranberry Cheesecake on Day 9. I picked the cranberry version first because of the vibrant color.

Since I was finishing yesterday’s Blueberry Pie in the morning, I didn’t start this until the afternoon. I kept both paintings on the same easel. At one point, I was working on both of them at the same time. The colors are similar, and I kept the same paper palette.

Blueberry Cheesecake is actually a composite view from several photos, which you can see better here.

There’s a light underpainting of yellow ochre to give this work some warmth. I started with the background in oil, which is white in the foreground with a tint of yellow, rose and light blue in it. The goal was just to keep this from looking too stark.

Then I moved on to the berries to work out the interplay of  blueberries and dripping juice. I spent a time studying the colors. Some blueberries looked like cranberries. When blueberries pooled on the table, they were dark indigo blue. But when they drip, the”sauce” is in the wine family.

Highlights are important in this painting, as they are to most paintings. Note that I left the highlighted areas white so I can see how they will look, and paint them in on a partially dry surface. Wet w hite highlights over indigo don’t work well, at least for me. The white almost seems to slither right off, barely leaving any paint.

I stopped painting at 1am. In the photos, these blueberries look too bright. Unfortunately I mixed white with the indigo. I was darkening them, but apparently not enough.

So I returned to the easel this morning hoping the blueberries didn’t look so day glow. Didn’t happen. I started this morning by darkening all the light blue areas (which are still photographing too light). Then I took the highlights down, which were too prominent. Since this took almost 3 hours,  I’ll have to plan my day carefully today!

Thanks for stopping by. Wish me good luck today!

Day 24. Glass Hood Ornament

How many people do you know who went to the Sarasota Classic Car Museum in Florida on spring vacation? Most people probably opt for the beach or Ringling Museum. Under protest from Jay, we squeezed in a quick trip to the car museum before Bonnie arrived. And I was rewarded with the inspiration for this painting.

The subject might come as a surprise to new readers, but I’m a native Detroiter so it makes sense to me. As Bonnie said, you can take a girl out of the Motor City, but you can’t take the Motor City out of the girl.

During my first Challenge, I discovered that I enjoy painting details of cars when I painted my first metal hood ornament from a vintage Chevy. Next came the  Mustang decal, and finally the Jetson-like fins and lights from a classic Dodge.

Tomorrow I’ll call the museum and find out what car this horse hood ornament belongs to. It must be rare because I can’t find it anywhere on the internet. FYI, Jay perked up during the visit when he found a car owned by one of the Beatles.

Unfortunately I was so engrossed in this painting that I forgot to take pictures until the very end. You can see the photo that I started with.

Early on I thought maybe I made a mistake by not darkening the background. However, once I started painting the horse and car, there was no going back.

After laying down the background color, I used a large (2 inch) brush to smooth out the paint. The good news is that the surface looks beautiful. The bad news is that it’s impossible to touch up.

I decided to focus on the dark car for contrast, and added alizaron crimson to the palette hoping it would positively impact the background – and it did. Also, it made it easier to anchor the bottom of the horse head.

This was an ambitious painting, which is why I saved it for the last week of the Challenge. After 3 weeks of painting every day, I’m painting better from all the practice. I’m more willing to push myself and try new things such as Glass Hood Ornament.

Painting just seemed to happen today, even with all the details. I’m sure there are spots without white paint on it, but that’s ok. It’s the Challenge after all.

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.

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 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 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 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 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 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!

Day 8. Plate of Cookies

I was thinking about cookies after all that Rugelach talk yesterday.

This Plate of Cookies is from our favorite bakery right, The Riviera Bakehouse, right here in Ardsley, NY. It’s our go-to bakery for paintable and edible baked goods, and has been for over 30 years.

Liv Hansen, the owner of Riviera, who is an artist herself, brought over a box of cookies. She puts her talent to work in the bakery designing the most gorgeous cakes. Two years ago during my first Challenge, Liz came over to see some of my work and talk art, and gave me productive feedback that helped me save my Box of Donuts painting.

That afternoon, Liv and I arranged some of the cookies on my purple plate and took photos before they were devoured. It took me a while to get up the courage to paint this one. Now I have a lovely painting to commemorate that day.

This photo was taken that day too. Liv is holding the cake topper that she made for my surprise birthday party (I won’t tell you how long ago; we have a second fridge in the garage…). There are several levels in it: Liv created the chocolate cake topper she is holding, which is based on a painting I did, whose subject was a black-out cake from Riviera that Liv made!

So we have a photo of a cake made from a photo of my painting, which was made from photo of a cake. Got that?

I am surprised I was able to finish this painting given its complexity and time constraint. It actually took a day and a half of painting time, plus sketch time a few days before. This was one of those paintings that you knew was going to work after a few hours.

The trick to this painting was planning, and thinking through the approach to the layers of color. I started with the light sugar cookies and rainbow cookie, which was key since it’s much easier to paint dark over light when oil paint is wet. Then the purple plate came next, followed by the highlights and finishing touches.

While I love this painting, I need to be more careful in my selection of complex subjects. There needs to be a mix of simple and complicated, or I’ll never make it through the Challenge. I was way ahead of schedule but not so much now, which could become problematic towards the last half of January when I have some commitments.

This means that shorter blogs will be better. Pithiness is a skill I would like to hone anyway.

Now I’m going to spend some time strategizing for the next few days. Thank you for stopping by!

Day 7. Rugelach

I didn’t realize it until just now, but after painting Cinnamon Bun swirls for Day 6, I followed with another spiral dessert in Rugelach.

“Rugelach” by Beverly Shipko, Oil on cradles panel, 6 x 6 inches

 

Clearly my subconscious is working overtime. I couldn’t resist looking up more meanings of spirals going back to Celtic times: balance, progress, centering, expansion, connection, journeying (the path from outer consciousness to the inner soul). Most of this made sense in the context of the Challenge.

Today’s painting is based on a photo I recently took at the Zaro’s Bakery stall in Grand Central Market. The Market in Grand Central Station is one of my favorite places to go and get inspired to paint food, and eat lunch after taking a train into Manhattan.

You should have seen me take this, standing on tiptoes holding my camera lens high above the glass, as the cashier was giving me the evil eye… However, I managed to take photos without hanging over the glass and contaminating the baked goods.

The first order of business was to zoom in on the rugelach and eliminate extraneous clutter in this sketch on wood panel. The primed surface is unforgiving, and doesn’t really allow for rough sketching. I tried to sketch lightly so the pencil lines wouldn’t be obtrusive in the final painting.

I don’t know if you can see it, but the table line on the left and right doesn’t line up in this sketch. Luckily I noticed it after checking the photo, and made the correction early on. Sometimes the camera lets you see details that you miss with the naked eye.

I started with a cool, light blue background to complement the cake stand, which I had been wanting to paint for ages, and to balance the color palette so it wasn’t too warm. Then I moved on to the combination of chocolate and strawberry rugelach.

When I first showed the painting to Bonnie after a few hours work, she said it reminded her of Wayne Thiebaud. That’s not a bad thing so I decided to stop. The next morning, I studied it in the morning daylight, added a bit of detail (the darker strawberries), and called it a day. After all, it is a painting a day.

As I was writing this blog post, I wasn’t quite sure how to spell rugelach. When I looked it up on Wikipedia, I found numerous spellings: rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, rogelach (all plural), rugalah, rugulah, rugala. Since it’s a traditional Jewish pastry that rolls dough around various fruit fillings, the common spellings are a hodgepodge of English and a phonetic version of Hebrew. My initial spelling, rugelah, wasn’t even on the lis!. Zaros used two “g’s”.

Now what spelling should I use for hashtags?

Tomorrow I need to get up earlier and take advantage of the natural daylight. It’s always better to paint during the day. After the midnight kitchen leak incident, I managed to shift my days and nights again.

With that, off to my easel.

Day 6. Cinnamon Rolls

Frankly I’m surprised by how much I like this little painting.

“Cinnamon Bun” by Beverly Shipko. Oil painting on cradled wood panel, 5 x 7 inches

There’s something about the combination of the swirls and the stripes of icing interrupting the circular pattern that I find appealing, as well as the cropping buns around a central image. Do you have any thoughts on why Cinnamon Buns just works?

Perhaps I’m attracted to the ancient symbolism of the spiral, would can mean growth and evolution. It can also symbolize female energy, the womb and abundance.

I started with this photo, which in hindsight looks rather unremarkable. At this point, my expectations were very low (more like nonexistent) for a cinnamon buns painting.

Then I cropped it dramatically on my computer, and thought it had possibilities as either a square or rectangular painting. In the end, I went with the horizontal format, cropping the image further.

The photo was so unmemorable that I had absolutely no idea where I took it. Fortunately,  we’re in the digital age and I could go back and look at everything I took that day.

It turns out the photo is from the buffet at The Samoset Resort where Jay and I stayed in Rockport, Maine last June. It was a lovely day outside with clear blue skies. We had a huge breakfast before walking out to the Rockland Breakwater Light, which is about .7 miles. We carefully navigating our way around these big crevises.

I could barely see the lighthouse as we approached.

Fortunately someone had the foresight to add a pontoon extension out into the water for picture taking.

I thought about painting the lighthouse, but found another one that is more dramatic. It may make an appearance in a week or so as I make my way to non-food paintings.

However, I’m not ready to leave desserts or food just yet. Maybe I’m simply seeking out comfort foods in this cold weather. Right now I’m thinking about a cup of warm tea or coffee with this cinnamon bun. Another time.

See you tomorrow!

Day 3. Stack of Oreos

My Challenge just wouldn’t be complete without Oreos, a subject that I can’t seem to resist.

“Stack of Oreos” by Beverly Shipko, Oil Painting, 5 x 7 inches cradled wood panel

Why do I keep coming back to them? When I think of Oreos, I think about many things, most of all being a kid again. They are iconic images with a  touch of nostalgia. A rite of passage. A piece of Americana, like apple pie and and Chevrolet.

I had sketched Stack of Oreos a long time ago after my favorite redhead “biters” came to visit for our annual Oreo Cookie summer party, which I wrote about during another challenge.  Jay and I make a great tag team at these get togethers. He starts by doing magic tricks. Then we take a studio tour, and I break out the Oreos for the boys. In 2014 Marsh and Graham came with Grandma Faye, my longtime friend who they were visiting during summer vacation.

Graham and Marsh both went all out biting and stacking. Just looking at this makes me smile!

As for the painting, here’s the original inspiration. I’m not sure whose handiwork this is since we forgot to write their name on the plate. Maybe the boys will remember.

I had to work hard and thoughtfully. There are lots of little details on the sides. At one point I thought I was done, and then stepped back and surveyed my progress. Surprise! The Oreos looked like they were bending.

So I straightened them out a bit, but decided to leave the top two a little curved since it added character and personified the Oreos. How’s that for overthinking?

As I write this, I realize that I’m already looking forward to next summer to see what my favorite biters come up with.

On to Day 4. Hope you stop by tomorrow.