Paintings | Beverly Shipko, Artist

Day 23 of the 30/30 Challenge – Peacock

January 24, 2015 by Beverly

The last week of the 30/30 Challenge is approaching and I have more ideas than days left. The hard part now is to decide what to tackle.

I’ve been contemplating peacocks for a long time, especially since I have seen them wandering around the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ several times in the past year. Sometimes I dreamt about wearing a peacock feather dress. So I had to paint this Peacock Eye on Day 23 before switching to food tomorrow.

Day 23. “Peacock Eye” by Beverly Shipko, Oil on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches

To me, peacocks are some of the most beautiful creatures on earth. The intense colors on their iridescent bodies and feathers on male peacocks are exquisite, almost surreal. I like the notion of peacocks having so many “eyes” and being all-seeing, so they can look into the future. They have been appropriated as symbols by many cultures, religions, and rulers throughout history (not to mention NBC…). They were especially popular during the Victorian error. You can see James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room in its full glory at the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C.

I am fascinated by peacocks, which is why I was thrilled to discover the Hudson River Museum (HRM) was mounting a rich exhibit on the subject called Strut: The Peacock and Beauty in Art. Did any of you happen to see it? As part of the show, one room of the HRM Victorian Glenview Mansion was completely decked out with peacocks – including a full-length peacock dress like the one I was dreaming about.

I went to the opening of this gorgeous show wearing my peacock scarf, and then went back twice. This peacock feather was my souvenir from the bookstore, which I used together with a photograph of the feather, as the basis for my painting.

This peacock feather was truly a stretch subject for me for a number of reasons. The colors changed every time the feather moved, which is why a photo was extremely helpful in establishing a fixed viewpoint. After deciding on the angle you wanted to paint, it was difficult to mix the colors and almost impossible to capture the iridescence (unless you have iridescent paint, which I don’t). The way to do it is by juxtaposing lights and darks, a trial and error method.

After playing around for a while, I went to youtube.com to watch a demo video on the subject, which encouraged me to keep going (didn’t have the guts to try the fan brush). Now that I attempted a peacock feather myself, I wish the HRM show was still up so I could have studied the details of my favorite peacock feathers painted by other artists. I do remember chuckling about one artist got around this problem by painting an albino peacock! My appreciation of all the artists in the show who depicted peacocks grew by leaps and bounds today.

I want to try painting the “eye” again after the Challenge is over – and I’ll be sure to post it here.

Now it’s time to leave this exotic bird and move on to Day 24. Come back again soon!

Day 22 of the 30/30 Challenge – Sunflower

January 23, 2015 by Beverly

Growing up, I remember a vase of Van Gogh’s sunflowers hanging in our house, an image which is permanently imprinted in my subconscious mind. So I evoked the spirit of that Van Gogh painting today while painting my own version of a Sunflower. Maybe that’s something I should try more often since I had a great day.

Day 22. “Sunflower” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 6 x 6 inches

I distinctly remember where I took the photo for this painting. Laura, Bonnie, Jay and I had just come back from Paris, where we all met to celebrate Bonnie’s Marist College graduation – our first family vacation together in many years. When I asked the kids (they aren’t really kids any more, are they?) to check out Paris sites and tell me where they wanted to do, they both said the same thing – Monet’s Home and Studio at Giverny, an hour by train outside of Paris.

This was a wonderful surprise since I am a Monet worshipper, and I was expecting them to say something more showy like Versailles. Maybe that book I gave them as a kid, Linnea in Monet’s Garden, made a bigger impact on them than I thought!

You’re probably thinking that I am going to say the photo came from Giverny – well, it didn’t. Instead, it was taken at an major show Jay and I went to after we returned from Paris called Monet’s Garden at the New York Botannical Gardens (NYBG) . This exhibit reinterpreted Giverny, right down to the turquoise Japanese wisteria bridge and the water lilies. It was a terrific tribute to Monet and his avid passion for gardening (for lack of a better word at 1am), which ultimately inspired some of his most famous paintings – the water lilies.

Apparently, between Van Gogh and Monet, I was truly inspired. I was in the zone. Time flew by and this painting just worked. I didn’t want to come out of the zone – and wouldn’t have except that I was expecting 10 friends for a 7pm meeting at my house tonight. So I had to take a break around 6pm, when this photo was taken. As you can see, I had already simplified the background by taking out the greenery.

At 10pm, I eagerly came back to the painting, finished around midnight – and had a lot of fun doing it. I think one of the reasons that this painting came easier was that I took some time upfront to refine the sketch, so I had a clear sense of the textured of the “face” and how the leaves overlapped. Today was a heavy Q-tip day since I often used them as brush replacements to keep the colors pure, and just threw them out afterwards (saved a lot of time cleaning brushes).

While this will be my last flower painting of the challenge, flowers will be a subject that I will revisit – and I am not just talking about the sugar ones on cakes!

See you tomorrow.

Day 20 of the 30/30 Challenge – Sunset

January 21, 2015 by Beverly

Here’s is today’s unfinished Sunset painting to go with this unfinished blog post… At the moment, I don’t know where I took the original photo that I am working from. Perhaps it was right here in New York. I’ll let you know when I find out.

When I use the word unfinished to describe the state of this painting, it is in a completely different context than before. While I said that other paintings feel like they are not complete, this one truly isn’t. I didn’t get a chance to work on it much today, as the rather crude handling of paint indicates. But I did get a chance to pack about 25 brushes away that I never use, which will make it easier to find the brushes that I like.

Day 20. “Unfinished Sunset” by Beverly Shipko, Oil sketch on cradled panel, 6 x 6 inches.

Nor will I get to work on this Wednesday. (How does a haircut, nutritionist appointment, and the Merry Widow HD movie courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera sound to you?). That’s why I am switching to a drawing so I’ll have something ready to post on Leslie’s site for Day 21. Then I can still go to sleep at a reasonable hour this week (if you call midnight reasonable). Drawings are much quicker for me (no cleanup too), and I might just be able to finish it.

I plan on picking up this painting again in a few days to refine it, including the handling of the paint itself, the reflecting edges of the clouds, and the addition of light yellow-orange clouds.

Based on this photo, the purple should be dulled down with it’s complementary color (in this case orange). Switching to a less violet purple should help too (one that doesn’t remind me of the purple people eater song). The light of day will give me truer picture of what’s going on here.

To be continued. I hope you’ll come back to see the final painting.

Day 19 of the 30/30 Challenge – London

January 20, 2015 by Beverly

I decided to go to London on Day 19.

For years, I wanted to try my hand at Big Ben, the iconic bell tower that has been painted by many artists from Turner to Monet and beyond. Big Ben is my version of this famous scene, which turned out to be a hybrid cityscape and sunset.

I was in London visiting Laura, who had a research internship at Imperial College during the summer of 2010. Laura and I were coming back from the The Eye in North End, crossing the bridge over the River Thames in the direction of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. It was a gorgeous evening and the sun was just beginning to set. I whipped out my camera and snapped a photo, as did hundreds of other people on that bridge, which inspired this painting.

Day 19. “Big Ben” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches.

Today I spent less time planning and more time just reveling in the paint. I wanted to make sure my buildings were straight and actually pulled out a ruler when I did the sketch. Then I picked up my brush and went for the sky. After working for a while, I laid in the foreground to get a sense of how the final composition would look.

When Bonnie came home, I was struggling a bit. She gave me some excellent feedback, reminding me that sometimes you need to make the whites darker before you can get that feeling of light. Painting whites are always challenging because they are so subtle.

I’ll have to revisit the work of John Singer Sargent, a 19th century American artist, who was a master at painting white. Sargent’s whites are actually composed of a bunch of different colors (as are Wayne Thiebaud’s), which is something I would like to master someday. In Big Ben, I stuck with the limited palette of white, black, and blue that was in the photo – which turned out fine.

I went back to compare Big Ben with my Paris Sunset from Day 13, which was a completely different painting experience. Paris Sunset was easier in some ways since it was dominated by the orange glow of the sun setting (aka little white).

Tomorrow I may try another sunset. Stay tuned.

Day 18 of the 30/30 Challenge – Mustang

January 19, 2015 by Beverly

This Mustang oil painting was inspired by the Detroit Woodward Dream Cruise, and by high school memories of all those cool Mustangs racing down Woodward on a Saturday night. The Ford Mustang car, now in its sixth generation, is a true classic – with a capital “C’. I hope you weren’t expecting to see a painting of the whole car…

Day 18. “Mustang” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches.

Originally the plan was to paint this yesterday, following on the wings of the Chevy Phoenix Vintage Hood Ornament from Day 16. However, it was a busy day, and I knew I had to start this iconic logo in the morning, when I was fresh, since it would take the whole day to capture the reflections with precision. There wasn’t much room for error with this daily painting, so I needed a day without interruptions. And the weather was so awful here in New York that I knew that was the perfect day.

Having the Day 16 hood ornament painting under my belt helped me approach this more complex image with confidence. I was very happy with the metallic rendering of the phoenix. When I look at the painting, I think how much I like it and not about fixing anything (a welcome change). From that painting, I developed some techniques that I knew would be helpful here (think Q-tips for brushes).

This sketch was done two days ago. So I was ready to paint after breakfast.

I started by applying a thin wash of red acrylic using wet paper towel (no pink allowed with this masculine color palette!). Then I painted the black middle stripe in the background, but not the red. I wanted to leave the bottom part of the panel blank so I could rest my pinkie on it to brace my hand. Inevitably, I do that without intending to, and nick the paint. Red is a particularly unforgiving color when it’s nicked, and it bleeds easily into other colors, which is hard to undo without letting the paint dry overnight.

In the middle of the day, I noticed something new. The blue sky was reflecting on the horse, as you can see above. It’s funny how long you can look at something and never really see it. So I mixed a good blue that worked and put it on sparingly.

Now it was time to decide on the predominant red color for the background since it was reflecting into the metallic logo. I found the perfect cadmium red in my paint box.

The next step was to add in the red reflections in the horse, before moving on to the faint reflection on red of the mustang underneath. I worked slowly and deliberately, using separate brushes for each color, and wiping the brush after each stroke. Now you can understand why it was slow going.

It was an intense day at times, but very satisfying from all perspectives, everything from the process to the result. When looked at my pictures for the day, I was surprised to see how closely the painting resembled the original photo.

The only thing I was having trouble with was photographing this piece at night. The black reflected every little brush mark creating unwanted hotspots. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Reluctantly, I think this is my last Dream Cruise painting for this challenge, although it’s tempting to keep going. There are other images that I want to try, both food and non-food. I expect to come back to this subject again in the future. Maybe I’ll even include more of a car (anyone up for Bel-Air fins?).

Thanks for stopping by to follow my progress. See you tomorrow!

Day 17 of the 30/30 Challenge – Raggedy Ann

January 18, 2015 by Beverly

Over 50 years ago, I received this handmade Raggedy Ann doll as a present from our neighbor, Marie. I couldn’t believe that anyone could make something this beautiful, let alone someone that I knew.

Everything on this doll was meticulously sewn, down to the embroidered heart on her chest saying, “I love you”. The current caretaker of Raggedy Ann, Bonnie, didn’t even know that this was handmade and given to me as a child until now. It’s in great shape too, although the pantaloons (for lack of a better word) need new elastics.

Day 17. “Raggedy Ann” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 7 x 5 inches.

For the first time during the challenge, I lost my focus. From the moment I got up, I was indecisive about how to approach this painting, especially the background. I tried different colors and nothing seemed to work but I felt stuck. Unlike past days, I wasn’t “in the zone”.

There were a number of factors that accounted for my fragmented state-of-mind. Unlike the previous two weeks, I had two things planned. The first was lunch with my cousin, followed by an art opening for a juried show at the Katonah Museum, which accepted one of my large bakery paintings. These two events took up most of the day and diverted my attention from the task at hand.

More sleep would also help. So would a personal assistant who cleans (the house and the brushes!), cooks, and keeps me on task… I can see why some Challenge artists start taking breaks to just to catch up.

Perhaps switching themes every day isn’t helping. No doubt life would have been easier if I stuck with food.

Hopefully, tomorrow will go more smoothly. I am looking forward to it.

Day 16 of the 30/30 Painting Challenge – Hood Ornament

January 17, 2015 by Beverly

Today I went back to the hood in more ways than one. This painting of a 1930’s Chevy Vintage Phoenix Hood Ornament came from a 2010 photo that I took at the Woodward Dream Cruise, an annual event that is held in my native city of Detroit. My best guess is that it’s from 1934 or 1935.

Day 15. “Chevy Vintage Phoenix Hood Oranament” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches

I love going to the Woodward Dream Cruise (as do a million other people!) every August to see the classic cars. It’s really amazing how much design work went into the old cars (the same thought I had about the Art of the Motorcycle Exhibit at the Guggenheim in 1998). Driving up and down Woodward Avenue in the Cruise brings back so many memories of my teenage years when that was the highlight of the weekend.

Many years ago I just happened to be in Detroit visiting my mother during the Dream Cruise and went because I was curious about it. I was hooked! For the record, my kids aren’t but they go to humor me. Now I try to be there every year. Recently I started taking photos of hood ornaments, which are really truly elegant works of art.

I started this painting by making a sketch directly on the panel, using my photo as a reference.

I could see faint pink reflections in the hood ornament and decided to use a pink ground, which you can see here defining the shape of the phoenix. After painting the blue background, I felt was too opaque and heavy looking. I used a large brush to soften it, taking off some of the paint to allow the pink ground to peek through and warm up the sky in the final painting. My other secret weapon for taking unwanted paint off panel is the lowly Q-tip, which came in handy several times. The important thing is to look closely at the subject and capture the sharp juxtapositions between the darkest and lightest surfaces, and the highlights – which kicked this painting up a notch.

I had wanted to paint this for a long time, both because the stylized design is striking and it’s metal. Lately I have been trying to push myself to paint subjects made from different materials.

Tomorrow I’m going to get started early so I can be finished by lunch, when I have to leave. At least that’s the plan.

Thanks for stopping by today and coming along for the ride.

Day 15 of the 30/30 Challenge – Tiger Orchid

January 16, 2015 by Beverly

Today I went back to an orchid, which I called Tiger Orchid for lack of any information to the contrary. There are so many varieties of orchids that it’s almost impossible to find the exact name, even with the internet.

I painted a similar tiger orchid from a photo that I took 30 years ago at Longwood Gardens, PA, a sentimental place for me since Jay proposed there. Even so, there’s no way I would have remembered the date without finding the photo with the information on the back.

This peaceful painting had a calming effect on me after a frenetic day yesterday with my double yolk egg (Day 14). For a few hours, I had visions of being in the tropics – and felt warmer already. Could it be from painting this hothouse flower on a warm winter day? Or just fond memories?

After selecting the orchid for my subject in the morning, I spent some time regrouping and planning for the rest of the challenge. The idea was to get out ahead of things with a busy weekend coming up. Ideally, I would have cleaned up my studio… Maybe tomorrow.

It was mid-afternoon before I started painting, and I had to work quickly to take advantage of the daylight. I was so focused that I forgot to take photos as I went along (a first!). After applying a pale yellow ochre acrylic underpainting with a touch of yellow in the center, I painted the background in oil, hoping that I wouldn’t have to redo it later. Then I began the orchid from top down, starting with the white petals and spots before moving on to the lower half.

At this point, I realized that the details of the orchid weren’t visible in the photo. Blowing up the image on the computer and reprinting it was key to completing the painting. I’ll have to remember to do this sooner when needed in the future.

All in all, it was a satisfying day. Tomorrow the goal is to complete Day 16 and start Day 17. Wish me luck with this ambitious plan!

Stay tuned.

Day 14 of the 30/30 Challenge – Double Yolk Egg Raw

January 15, 2015 by Beverly

I returned to food today, but to something healthier than desserts.

This Double-Yolk Egg Raw painting was inspired by a recent carton of jumbo eggs – all double yolks! I took daily photos of this unusual occurrence (the art historian in me records everything). Maybe this double-yoke egg did bring me luck since this painting flowed. I even had time to cook, and I’m not just talking about eggs.

Day 14. "Double-Yolk Egg" by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 6 x 6 inches.

Day 14. “Double-Yolk Egg Raw” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 6 x 6 inches.

The process of painting turned out to be much like that of Laura’s Baby Shoe on Day 9 with its limited palette, warm grey acrylic underpainting showing through, and thin layers of paint.

I was feeling pretty good early on, and knew the risk of overworking this was greater than “underworking”. So I moved ahead carefully, taking breaks and coming back with a fresh eye.

By mid-afternoon, I wondered if I could be done. I liked the transparency of the yolk, although it felt a little rough around the edges (the egg is floating, or should I say eggs?).

I took a risk and kept going, photographing each step so I could see if I was adding real value or kidding myself. Although I like the finished painting, there is something appealing about this earlier version too. It has less grey and feels brighter.

What do you think? Should I have stopped here?

I am amused by this train of thought. Now I am talking about overworking paintings after a a few hours, when I usually think about this after a few days, weeks or even months for larger works. The 30/30 Challenge has already had a positive impact.

Thanks for coming by and giving me your comments. The feedback is what I miss about working in a studio with other people – it’s the best way to learn.

Day 13 of the 30/30 Challenge – Paris Sunset

January 14, 2015 by Beverly

This little sunset was a joy to paint. So 13 turned out to be a lucky number today.

Day 13. “Sunset from the Arc de Triomphe” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches.

This view brought back happy memories from a few years ago. When Bonnie graduated Marist college, I asked her what she wanted for a present. Her answer was a family vacation, and she chose Paris.

When we arrived in Paris, we had a few hours of daylight left and walked over to the Champs-Élysées. We ate dinner in a cute outdoor cafe and went to the Arc de Triomphe, where this stunning sunset awaited us. In the distance, you can see a large cluster of government buildings with the iconic rectangle (which I will look up in my tour guide since I can’t find it on the internet). I took a series of photos that night.

I started this landscape by using a light wash of yellow ochre for the underpainting, followed by a bare bones sketch of the essential compositional elements (the opposite of what I did yesterday with the orchids). Then I went for the oils and laid in the largest areas of colors.

I applied a few layers of paint to the clouds and ended up wiping them off. There was too much paint on my brush for the light, airy feeling that I envisioned for this image. In fact, when I wiped off the paint, I got some wonderful streaks of sunlight coming through from the underpainting, which I left in. Sometimes good things happen accidentally and you have to take advantage of these situations – which I did.

It became apparent early on that this painting was going to work. I just had to relax, turn on some music (Aaron Copland fit today’s theme), enjoy myself, and put in the effort. All of which I did. Quite a different experience from Day 12.

I won’t take you through a litany of changes I would make if I had another day – because I realize I probably wouldn’t make them. Instead, I would simply paint another version. And that is progress, with a capital “P”.

Ideally, I would like to use a similar yellow/orange palette tomorrow since I got used to the nuances of working with these colors and am on a roll. I have an idea for a Day 14, but maybe I don’t want to spoil the surprise…

You’ll just have to come back for the next installment.

Day 12 of the 30/30 Painting Challenge – Orchid

January 13, 2015 by Beverly

Day 12 was different from previous days in the Challenge – not just because of the subject. The question today wasn’t when I was going to post, but whether I would have anything to post at all!

The day was fraught with issues. By mid-afternoon I even gave myself mental permission to skip a day and relax while watching Ohio State play Oregon for the national championship. That took the pressure off and things turned around. Here’s the story.

Last Friday night, Jay and I went to the New York Botannical Garden (NYBG) for the Holiday Train Show with strategically placed orchids, inspiring me to paint one. This particular flower (which remains nameless) came from last year’s lavish NYBG Orchid Show. At the time, I was too busy painting desserts for my Open Studio to take a detour into this exotic world.

I had high expectations for Day 12, both in terms of the process and the output. Maybe that was part of the problem. Some of my most satisfying days began without any expectations of “success”, something to keep in mind for the rest of the challenge. If success is defined as learning, then every day I participate is a “success”!

As you can see, I started with a detailed pencil sketch and added a few thin layers of yellow ochre acrylic underpainting.

Then I decided to use color blocking grounds, meaning different color underpaintings for various areas. White and magenta went under the flowers. This helped work out the composition in my mind (or so I thought), and I ended up adding two smaller flowers near the edges. It was time to bring out the oils.

A number of issues surfaced right away:

1. After many, many attempts, I couldn’t mix deep magenta. Like the internet suggested, I should have bought a new tube of dark magenta oil paint.

2. In its place, I used a new tube of alizarin crimson (replacing my Old Holland Alizaron Crimson which sprang a leak; AI Friedman was out of stock), which turned out to be a suboptimal color.

3. The detailed sketch and several layers of underpainting set the stage for me to tighten up for the first time during this challenge. Also, multiple layers of acrylic paint altered the smooth texture of the panel.

4. The background became busy and opaque when I started putting in the greens, detracting from the orchid.

At this point, I thought this painting was hopeless. You can see why from this photo (still cringing from it). Each step along the way just made things worse. Now I remember why I stopped using underpainting years ago.

The one good thing about reaching a low point, there’s almost nowhere to go but up. I had nothing to lose by going a little crazy with the oil paint and working freely again – virtually ignoring the drawing underneath.

I added dark blue to the leafy green background, simplifying it and adding contrast so the orchid popped. Then I got out my big tube of titanium white and covered up most of the day’s work, making the petals larger and more graphic (one of the reasons I chose the image in the first place). I located my leaking alizarin crimson and switched back to it. So what’s a little paint on my hands?

Finally, the painting started to resemble the initial concept. It just got there a different way than planned. Then I had a dilemma – to stop or continue. The petals still had large areas of white on them, without the subtle pinks in the photo.

I wanted to quit for the day since I had struggled for so many hours. Bonnie didn’t agree, and told me to keep going. Since she was cooking dinner again with Jay, I picked up the brushes and added in the pink, which I was glad about in the end.

Dinner was ready and I was done. Well, not really, more like fried. I decided the incremental value of continuing to paint had minimal incremental benefit. I was grateful this painting had come this far, and put it down for the day – which is getting easier for me to do.

There were a few morals to this story.

1. Above all else, I need to always stay focused on my personal goal for the challenge – to loosen up and have fun experimenting with new things. This means skipping such detailed sketches and elaborate multi-color underpaintings, which are counterproductive in this context.

2. Sometimes you don’t settle, like for a lesser brand of paint. I will order my favorite Old Holland Alizarin Crimson online tomorrow.

3. It’s important to keep the subject simple and focused during the challenge. This image had a lot in it – one or two orchids would have been fine instead of a bunch.

Bonnie made an astute comment when she suggested that I got so comfortable painting desserts that I need to re-learn how to paint everything else. Certainly I need to get used to using non-food colors such as green and red. My friend, Carol, was thinking along similar lines when she told me that she was glad yesterday’s Sedona mountains didn’t resemble marble cake! I’m still laughing over that.

I just turned on the game and am getting organized for tomorrow – a family event in the morning and painting in the afternoon. I’ll have to choose my subject carefully on Day 13 since I’ll be starting late. One day I’ll do another orchid painting, just not tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Day 11 of the 30/30 Challenge – Sedona Painting

January 12, 2015 by Beverly

Here’s my first landscape painting of the challenge, Cathedral Rock in Sedona at sunset.

Day 11. “Cathedral Rock” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches.

If you read my post from yesterday, you already know that the last time I painted a western landscape was 25 years ago. News flash: Rocky terrain isn’t any easier to paint today than back then. I must admit I thought it would be, but I was struggling with the color all day. When I tried working more red into the rocks while the paint was this wet, I lost the feeling of sunset. So I stuck with a more yellow/orange palatte.

Of all the paintings I have done so far in this challenge, this is the one that I really wanted more time for. Perhaps letting the painting dry completely and then adding a thin transparent reddish glaze would work well. But having said that, the painting might become overworked. On Day 8, I probably would have said the same thing about my box of donuts, but in the light of day I love it just the way it is. In fact, I think it’s one of my favorite paintings so far. I’ll have to take another in the morning.

Unlike yesterday’s square drawing, I decided to paint this Sedona landscape in a horizontal format so that Cathedral Rock would be more recognizable. Since I was surprised to the miss the square format which maybe feels more contemporary to me (less like a postcard), I might try painting another version using the square format. Maybe the second one will get easier and I can play with different reds. Any thoughts?

Now it’s time for dinner (thank you Bonnie!), and to think about tomorrow’s painting. The next time I do this challenge, I am going to take Jay’s advice and plan out 30 paintings in advance of Day 1 so I can relax in the evenings.

See you tomorrow!

Day 9 of the 30/30 Challenge – Baby Shoe

January 9, 2015 by Beverly

Surprise! I really did take a break from desserts today. Here’s an oil sketch of Laura’s Baby Shoe (we only have one).

“Laura’s Baby Shoe” by Beverly Shipko, Oil sketch on panel, 6 x 6 inches.

For many years, I thought this shoe belonged to Laura, my oldest daughter. Bonnie, my youngest, just informed me that it’s hers. I associate it with Laura because all her baby shoes looked like this. Maybe I’ll be able to find Bonnie’s pastel multi-colored baby shoes before the end of this challenge and do a painting of her’s too.

I ran across this baby shoe last week, and put it aside thinking it would make a nice painting and memory of times past. After yesterdays’s colorful but demanding donut painting, I was ready for a change in subject, level of complexity, and cleanup (fewer colors = fewer brushes). This monochromatic subject fit the bill. I also think a recent show called Wayne Thiebaud: In Black on White at the Allan Stone Projects in Chelsea played a unconscious role in my decision. Well, maybe not so unconscious since I’ve been looking at this image in a brochure since December, and you already know about how I feel about my hero, Wayne Thiebaud.

Wayne Thiebaud's "Pie Slice" " courtesy of the Allan Stone Projecs , charcoal and pencil on board.

Wayne Thiebaud’s “Pie Slice” ” reproduced courtesy of the Allan Stone Projects.

When my husband and daughter saw today’s oil sketch, they were less than enthusiastic about this unexpected shift in direction. Maybe I should have prepared them first. Clearly this painting did not meeting Bonnie’s expectations since her feedback was that it was boring and colorless. Jay tried valiantly (but failed) to cover up his dislike. It doesn’t matter, because I painted it for myself.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but wonder what this oil sketch would have looked like with a colorful background to punch it up a bit… Should I change it? Or try another one? I would like to hear what you think.

This was the first day of the challenge that I painted from an actual object. Even so, I used my portable lamp (aka flashlight) to play with the shadows and took photos to help decide on the final composition. I didn’t realize until today how “addicted” I am to digital photography as part of the process. And it’s so much easier to paint with the aid of a photo conveniently taped at eye level on your easel. Below are two “finalist” options with subtle differences. The first one looked good to me until I saw the second with the funkier shoelace shadow, the direction that I went with.

I am really enjoying painting every day, and am learning a great deal on so many levels. The difficult part is finding time for everything else. I definitely need to fit more cooking in. The true challenge today was to finish before 6:30pm when Jay and I were leaving for the Holiday Train Show evening event at the New York Botannical Gardens (which was truly stunning at night!). I even managed to post to Leslie’s site before leaving (I was #297 today; moving on up).

Tomorrow we have New York Philharmonic tickets and had originally planned to go to some museums first. That would probably mean doing a drawing instead of a painting, which I don’t have to decide right now. But why do I feel like that’s cheating?

See you tomorrow.

Day 8 of the 30/30 Challenge – Box of Donuts

January 9, 2015 by Beverly

Before I tell you about Day 8, I would like to take a moment and celebrate the end of Week 1 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. This morning I lined all the sketches on my storage area (aka piano), and I couldn’t help but feel proud!

The End of Week 1 – 30 Paintings in 30 Days.

Later, Bonnie came home and commented that she really likes having this little paintings. I know exactly what she means, although I am hard pressed to articulate it at midnight (may have to finish this post tomorrow). As a group, they are impactful (more so in real life). Thank you, Bonnie, for coming up with a solution to my easel problem for the next few day by suggesting that we move the Lion King creatures off the the music stand and use that.

Here’s the final oil painting for today. (Jay, was that you who snuck a doughnut?) Since I am posting after midnight, you may have guessed that today was difficult. This was an ambitious painting that I started painting too late in the day, and then took a long break for a visit with a fellow artist (which I needed badly).

Day 8, ” Box of Dunkin’ Donut’s” by Beverly Shipko, Oil sketch on panel, 5 x 7 inches

I almost lost the whole painting since there was just too much pink and purple. This was one case where the selection of a pink acrylic underpainting was not optimal. Things would have gone a lot easier with a yellow ochre ground for the table, and maybe part of the box too.

You can see the some of the changes I made when you compare the photo and the painting. The turning point in the whole day was at 6pm when I painted the left strip yellow (a complementary color to the purples and pinks) and the orangey cake color on the donuts. After that, I focused on just bringing as much color variety into the final piece as possible.

Of all the paintings I have completed so far, this one has the most details in it that I would want to fix. I won’t, but I do reserve the right to finish the chocolate frosting stripes on the donut, which I simply forgot to come back to (looking a little ragged), and put a little shadow in the lower right hand corner of the box (where I put a line to remind me).

As I think about tomorrow’s painting, I know that I have to choose something simpler and less complex. I will be delivering a painting for an exhibit in the morning, and then we’re going to see the Holiday Train Show at the NY Botannical Gardens in the evening. That leaves about 5 hours in the middle of the day, if I’m lucky.

One thing you can be sure of – I’m not painting doughnuts. Until then.

Day 7 of the 30/30 Challenge – Dunkin’ Donuts

January 8, 2015 by Beverly

It’s almost 11pm and I’m just finishing up. This is the latest I have posted so far. As a result, I am the 412th artist to post on the 30/30 Challenge blog for Day 7 (a few hundred off from my goal).

The day was challenging, both because life intervened and I got started late, and I was struggling with the background and the sprinkles since the paint was so wet (which made it hard to photograph). Here’s the final product.

Day 7. Beverly Shipko, “Two Dunkin’ Donuts”, Oil sketch on panel, 6 x 6 inches

I continue to work from photographs. As you can see, I saved the hardest part of this painting for last – the sprinkles on the white icing. In this case, that decision probably cost me a lot of time.

When I added in the white icing, it soon became apparent that the top donut was blending with the light background and the cup. The dark underpainting had good contrast and threw me off. If I had started with the white icing, I could have addressed the issue earlier and it would have been a much easier fix, maybe with a different outcome.

I have this nagging thought that the sprinkles might have helped the donut pop, but I didn’t wait to find out. I added some rose to the background, which I would soften if I had another day. Then I started painting sprinkles, one at a time, using a new brush for each color – blue, green, red, orange, pink and yellow. It got interesting when I ran out of small brushes… A lot of brush and hand cleaning took place today.

In retrospect, I wish I had done the white icing during the day. I use a full spectrum light in the studio at night, but it’s not the same as natural light.

The first thing I have to do tomorrow is find a safe place for the donut painting to dry – not to mention the other 23 daily paintings… I’m am running out of space on the piano and small easels. I am surprised by how good these small painting look together, and plan to hang them all together for this year’s RiverArts Studio Tour in April.

I learned a lot about painting donuts today in this format and on this timetable. I will use this newfound knowledge on my next donut painting, which may or may not be tomorrow. I haven’t decided yet. Maybe I need a donut break.

See you tomorrow!