bevsbites

Ringing in the New Year!

My New Years’ present to myself is to resume work on Choices, an ambitious vending machine painting that I began two years ago. While I was in the middle of it, I had to dismantle my home studio to sell the house and downsize. Then Choices went into storage for an extended period.

Vending Machine Series: Choices, by Beverly Shipko, Acrylic and Oil Painting, 30 x 30 inches, Work-in-Progress

I call this painting ambitious because it has 15 unique logo packages, plus 5 oversize vegetables, and 20 vending rings in it! I’m thinking I must have almost been insane at the time to tackle this painting. However, when I read my old blog, I seem totally rationale and approached the development of Choices very methodically.

From the outside looking in, this 3 x 3 foot painting looks finished, and my neighbors keep telling me it must be almost done. Even my youngest daughter, Bonnie, and artist friend, Linda, thought so.

But it’s not. I mistakenly bought into the party line that it was almost done. I was disappointed.

Here’s what happened.

I decided to paint the top row of chips. Often I find it’s best to work in oils from the top down so I don’t smear the paint below when I brace my hand on the canvas.

Signaling my serious commitment to painting, I put on one of my favorite CDs, Aaron Copland’s inspiring Celebration (yes, I confess I still have quite a CD collection, which is great when the power goes out.)

And I cranked my easel as low as it would go to bring the chips down to eye level. The beauty of a crankable easel is its ability to reach the tallest parts of large paintings without standing on a step stool – which resulted in several mishaps in the past, most recently January. It was the best art purchase I ever made! I would highly recommend making the investment in a easel with a crank by Mabef to all of you painters. (Tip: Find a big sale at an online art supply store.)

Alas, now that the top row of chips are at eye level, I see how rough and sketchy the chips are, especially the graphic Cheetos package. Previously, I had been looking at this painting but not seeing or processing its interim status.

Ok, I was prepared for the chips. But what I wasn’t expecting to find – under direct sunlight – was that the black acrylic background had lots of little white canvas spots peeking through everywhere at an unacceptable level. I shifted gears and spent two days repainting the black acrylic background.

After finishing the background, I had to face the unpleasant fact that the black vending rings are barely sketched in.  My eye saw the rings the way I wanted them to be, rather than how they are. Painted very tentatively and barely there. Fragile. Hardly looking like strong metal vending rings.

Unfortunately,  it had been so long that I didn’t remember if I used acrylic or oils. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, oil-based paint and water-based acrylic don’t mix – like oil and water. Oil paint can go over acrylic, but acrylic can not be painted over oil.

I thought I could tell the medium by feeling the surface since oil has more texture, at least the way I paint.

Since I couldn’t feel much texture, I tried acrylic on the rings. Alas, the paint pooled up and I knew I guessed wrong.

At this point, my assessment is that I’m 60-70% finished. Way lower than I thought before starting.

I knew I had to paint all the rings before I could move onto color. As anyone who has tried to paint ovals and circles knows, capturing these shapes with flowing lines in the right perspective on a slight textured canvas is difficult. Even my hero, Wayne Thiebaud, slips up once in a while. Note the awkward angle of the spiral topped cake.

The rings require the most concentration.

They are such an integral part of the rhythm of composition. The rings have their own reflections, cast their own shadows on the packages, and reflect the colors.  I used to paint them last, but I learned that painting them earlier in the process – in acrylic – results in a more integrated composition. Unfortunately, one slip of the hand often means a major repair job on the oil-based package. After conquering the rings, I’m confident the rest of the painting will come more easily.

Don’t get me wrong, I can handle the rings. But I would much prefer working on paintings with one big ring per canvas as in this ongoing vending series.

Now I don’t have to wonder what I’m going to do this holiday week.

My new goal for rest of New Year’s week is to finish all 20 rings using Ivory Black and Titanium White oil paint, which will be a major accomplishment!

Of course, the rings will need additional touchups once I start applying color. That’s part of the process.

For now, it’s somewhat fitting that painting them is how I’m ringing in the New Year.

We’re coming full circle, and I hope that means much peace, joy and health for you in 2021. Happy New Year!

Anatomy of a Series

Working in a series is often more complex than you might think.

Take my candy vending series, for example. On a whim, I decided to add a panel with the largest piece of broccoli I have ever painted – almost 2 feet tall. Here it is before I painted in the vending machine rings.

Since I wanted it to mesh with the rest of the series, I put it up on the mantle to compare shading, color and size of the dark rings going any further. The mantle ended up doing double duty as an easel.

This worked for a while as long as I was painting near the bottom. Eventually I got the kitchen step stool out.

Here I am looking happy – right before I got black paint on my newly painted fireplace mantel… Now I know why artists keep so many easels in their loft studios.

I’ll have to look for a better strategy if I want to keep the pristine look of my newly painted studio, which you can check out this coming weekend.

Here’s the finished painting. 

Vending Machine Broccoli

It fits in very well with the rest of the series visually. Maybe a little paint on the mantel is a small price to pay.

One thing is certain: The addition of the broccoli sure does make me think differently about the whole series. It will be interesting to hear what people have to say about it.

What do you think? Feedback is much appreciated.

$1 Art Vending Machine

After 2 days visiting hundreds of exhibits during Armory Art Fair Week, there’s one interactive installation that stands out above all others  – and that’s Art Vending Machine $1 Paintings. 

Booth 512 on Pier 94 at the Armory Show, Gallerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Stockholm

I love it! Apparently so does the Guggenheim who is thinking about purchasing this.

Located on the 94th Pier (Booth 512) at the grandaddy Armory Show (through Sunday, March 4), Art Vending Machine $1 Paintings attracted long lines whenever it was operating. The novelty of watching an original piece of artwork pop out of a huge vending machine for $1 was irresistible.

Simply put in your dollar, choose the concept you want from the list, tell the representative who talks to artist through a cardboard tube in the wall, wait a bit, and out it comes. Then you have your photo taken with your original art.

The buyers all walked away with big grins, proudly holding their abstract compositions, many commenting they were going to frame their creations.

This was one of the most innovative and memorable installations I have even seen at an art fair. It has special appeal to me as a painter of vending machines (Icons of the Candy World, Icons of the Chip World), my most recent being Super Foods.

“Super Foods”, Vending Machine Series, by Beverly Shipko, Oil on wood panel, 5 x 7 inches

With 10 paintings in the series so far, Art Vending Machine $1 Paintings opened up the world of possibilities to explore further. I plan to go beyond broccoli and think broader. As the metaphorical visual below implies, this theme can incorporate any material – even the kitchen sink.

So can I.

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 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 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.