Month: January 2017

Day 29. Gina’s Oreo


Practice makes perfect. So here’s another Oreo drawing, this one bitten by Gina.

Like Margie’s Oreo, Gina’s Oreo was bitten as an entry into my Oreo Cookie Contest held during my Open Studio. I’m considering doing a painting of this too. Maybe you’re even looking at the contest winner!

I first met Gina Thorne when she walked through the door in 2015. Gina was in charge of programming for the Scarsdale Artist’s Association, and asked me to do a Just Desserts Talk and Painting Demonstration. It sticks out in my mind because I enjoyed speaking in front of a group, especially about art and niche marketing, which you can about in The Sheer Joy of Just Desserts. At moments like these, my yearning to be an artist history professor re-emerges.

This particular Oreo was chosen because of the way it split into 3 pieces, yet it still looks like a classic bite. I’m almost finished with it, but I have to put it down tonight since I’m getting up at 6am tomorrow morning. – and it’s already past midnight. I’m going to the Awakenings Fair in Manhattan.

When I come home from the city, I’ll darken the craggy edges but lighten the dark “hotspot”, put in a little shadow on the white filling, and add more contrast to the rest (aka darken it with a softer drawing pencil).  Then I’ll be all set to start my Day 30 painting.

Or maybe I’ll wait a few days so I can start my next painting before my eye doctor’s appointment on Monday.

Unfortunately my eyes will be dilated part of the day, and I won’t be able to paint. If I hadn’t waited months for the appointment, I would have re-scheduled. So my planning finally went a bit awry. I’ll just add this to my lessons learned. No eye doctor’s appointment during a painting challenge!

I have a painting in mind for Day 30 that I simply have to do for myself, and you’ll probably find it intriguing at the very least.

Have I piqued your interest? If so, come back tomorrow.

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 27. Blueberry Pie

With my upcoming summer show in Maine in mind, I bring you Blueberry Pie. Blueberries are the beloved Maine state fruit.

“Blueberry Pie” by Beverly Shipko, Oil on wood panel, 6 x 6 inches

We are blueberry pie fans and serve this often, especially during Open Studios. Bonnie selects goodies from Riviera Bakehouse that go with my paintings. I took lots of photos of this lattice pie a few years back after Liv, the owner of Riviera, pointed out that few bakeries do lattice work any more because of the labor costs.

I’ve painted blueberry pie before and blueberry cheesecake. So I got out indigo blue for the berries and alizaron crimson for that luscious cranberry-colored juice that is part of the blueberry pie experience.

As I write this blog, I’m still working on this painting after a full day’s work. That’s because there was a slight structural flaw that I didn’t catch until the end.

Things started off well.

The crust was looking good now that I found out the secret color for painting baked goods –  raw sienna. At this point, the flaw in the drawing still isn’t obvious. Can you see it yet?

I finally noticed it when I started working on the tin. Take a closer look at the height of the tin going all the way around. It’s not consistent. In fact, one side (bottom of painting) looks almost half as high as the other (top).

This problem gets more obvious as the tin gets darker. If you check out the reference photo, you see that some of the disparity comes from the angle of the shot. The rest comes from the evolution from pencil to paint, when the width of the brush can change the trajectory of the circles. And it did here.

Tonight I spent an hour and a half trying to gain some height on the bottom. I think I did. Unfortunately the tin got too dark and I lost some of that big lip on the tin near the bottom, but that was the only way to fix it. This is where I stopped for the night.

I estimated that it would take at least 2 hours to work on the tin, and it did. Since I used Q-tips to carefully wipe the paint from the tin, the remaining paint was just dry enough to work effectively this morning.

While I’m happy with this painting, I still have this weird compulsion to work on it to make it perfect. I’m glad this is a Challenge painting because I have to put it down – a good thing while it’s still fresh.

My Day 28 painting is all sketched out and ready to go. I just have to get to it! Stay tuned.

Day 26. Margie’s Oreo

Today was my day to relax and catch up by returning to my food roots with an Oreo drawing. I only had a few hours to work, which didn’t allow time for cleanup and brush cleaning.

“Margie’s Oreo Cookie” by Beverly Shipko, Drawing, 6 x 6 inches

This is my first drawing of this Challenge, and the first in a long time. I must admit to feeling a little rusty and missed having a paintbrush in my hand. I had to dig out my Bristol board pad and soft drawing pencils, although I confess that I still use Old Faithful – my soft yellow Ticonderoga pencil.

After I scanned this image the first time, I made the cookie and logo darker and made revisions so the cracks were more obvious, as they were at the beginning.

I have a long history with Oreos, both eating them as a child and painting them for over a decade.

On Day 2 of this Challenge, I painted Stack of Oreos. Three Oreo paintings from the 2016 Challenge include Oreo in 4 Pieces, Oreo in 3 Pieces, and BlakesBite, the 2016 Oreo Cookie Contest winner for its distinctive bite.

Days 1, 2 & 3 of the 30/30 Challenge, Paintings by Beverly Shipko, Oil on cradled wood panel, 6 x 6 inches

The Oreo Cookie Contest is held during my annual April Open Studio, which is fast approaching. Consider this an official invitation to come and participate in the fun by simply biting an Oreo or two (weekend of April 22nd/23rd). I select my favorite compositions to paint (or draw), and name the paintings after the biters. Each work essentially becomes a personal portrait, like Margie’s Oreo.

A few years ago, I started drawing single Oreos, whose monochromatic color are suited to pencils. During the 2015 Challenge, I explored a Plate of Oreos, which ended up taking more than a day.

End of Day 21. “Graham’s Plate of Oreos” by Beverly Shipko, Drawing on bristol board, 6 x 6 inches.

The drawings evolved into Oreo prints, which have a contemporary look that does well in California. I recently donated an Oreo print to a fundraiser for the Ardsley Foundation for the Visual Arts. Here’s John Charles, the happy purchaser.

Then came Oreo Mandala, an original composite print representing 9 of the most distinctive Oreo configurations from the contest. I have this in my house and never get tired of it.

“Oreo Mandala” by Beverly Shipko, Limited Edition Giclee Print, 27 x 27 inches framed, available 20 x 20 inches unframed.

In fact, I gave one to Webmaster Laura as a housewarming gift.

This day flew by unbelievably quickly. I had intended to do so many things besides this Oreo drawing – take a walk, wash my hair, sketch a blueberry cheesecake (having a summer show in Maine) for Saturday, catch up on Instagram, start a drawing for Sunday when I’ll be in the city – all before 5pm. About half of this happened. I can dream, can’t I?

Instead I went to see Godunov’s Romeo and Juliet (and watched them dream!) from the Metropolitan HD Opera at my local movie theater, and loved it.

The best news is that I got a chance to try and reset my body clock by going to sleep earlier. I’ll be bright and shiny for Day 27. See you then!

Day 25. Packard Swan Hood Ornament

Yesterday the Glass Hood Ornament spoke to me. Today it was the Packard Swan Hood Ornament.

While I found the Glass Hood Ornament in a Sarasota museum last year, Bonnie and I came across this shiny, elegant swan design outdoors at the Woodward Dream Cruise in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan in 2008.

Technically we’re in Royal Oak, MI, at the Northwood Shopping Center parking lot at Woodward and 13 Mile Road, which was packed with classic cars from all over the U.S. Fortunately I took a photo of the whole car (on the right below) with a 1949 Packard license plate for the uninformed.

FYI. You can see the local CBS camera crew covering the event, which has grown to be huge. Over 30,000 classic cars from around the US come to cruise Woodward Avenue, bringing a reported 1.5 million people. That’s a lot of potential Dream Cruise paintings, besides the one’s I’ve already done (Classic 1959 Dodge, Mustang, Chevy Hood Ornament).

Many of the cars are lined up with their hoods up so we can check out the engines.

Some cars have the most outrageous colors. Here I am with a chartreuse car that could burnt your retina.

Bonnie chose to stand in from of a purple car since it’s her favorite color.

The Packard I decided to paint has a nice conservative maroon color, like yesterday’s car. It was convenient to do the ornaments back-to-back so I could use the same paper palette two days in a row. And I was in the reflective mindset.

I got off to a very late start, and now I’m up at an ungodly hour writing this post. But it’s more efficient to write while the day is fresh in my mind. My goal was to get the quiet, smooth clouds before dinner. This was a moral victory because clouds tripped me up earlier in the Challenge.

The most critical part of the whole painting was putting in the crisp and straight outlines that define the shape. Mistakes at this point might be unfixable. I admit to feeling a little wobbly today so I was a bit nervous going in. A slip of the hand could turn a graceful swan into an ugly ducking.

You can see here how the reflections preceded the dark colors this time around.

At 1 am I thought I was done, and walked away to start cleaning brushes. When I came back, I decided the reflection on the car was a bit too light and distracting. So I kept going, and decided to pay the price tomorrow by staying up late – but having the satisfaction of knowing this painting was done.

That’s it for car imagery for now. On to something else, which has yet to be determined. I’m going to the Met HD Opera Romeo and Juliet at the local movie theatre, which I have been looking forward to, but it will take over 5 hours out of my day. Perhaps a drawing is in my future.

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 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.