Studio Tour | Beverly Shipko, Artist

2017 Open Studio

April 28, 2017 by Beverly

Thank you all for coming to my Open Studio!

For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s a mini photo-blog tour. FYI. I meant to take an action video once people arrived, but I was too busy – and forgot to ask anyone else to do it.

When the big day arrived last Saturday, Bonnie and I were ready and waiting for our first guests, who arriving promptly at 11:00am.

My studio was amazingly clean, with just one table of oil paint tubes and brushes. I even surprised myself!

This display greeted everyone at the front door, totally arranged by Bonnie. Bravo! My big Confection Obsession painting was in the front hall too.

Confection Obsession by Beverly Shipko, Oil, 36 x 48 inches

With the new white walls, it really felt like a gallery.

And can you guess what got the most comments of all?

The broccoli, of course! Over the mantle and on the easel.

This panel of sweets attracted a lot of attention too.

It’s always fun to see who walks through the door. There’s never a dull moment. Here we are with Theresa, who made the first purchase of the weekend.

Liv of Riviera Bakehouse thoughtfully arrived with a box full of her tantalizing mini-cupcakes for our dessert table (yes, we had real edible desserts!). Perhaps there’s a mini-cupcake painting in my future…

Of course, our traditional donut holes were on hand from Dunkin’ Donuts – ostensibly for the kids, but downed by adults. Naturally, Jay dug right in.

We had neighbors.

Friends.

Loyal fans who come back annually. Somehow Samantha magically grew up into a young lady since last year!

After a whirlwind two days – including an artists party on Saturday night – our last visitor arrived on Sunday. Here’s Kathy, from my Kraft General Foods days. How nice it was to finally sit down and catch up!

And how funny it was that Bonnie looks like her daughter in this photo with all the curly hair.

Oh yes, did I forget to mention all the kitchen action with the Oreo Cookie Contest? We’ll get to that in my next post.

I hope you can stand the suspense.

Happy 75th, M&Ms!

April 20, 2017 by Beverly

Here’s a little painting that I had sketched for the January Challenge. It was just waiting patiently on its easel, crying out for me to finish it before this weekend’s Open Studio.

Happy 75th, M&Ms! by Beverly Shipko, Oil on wood panel, 5 x 7 inches

This painting turned into a commemorative painting marking M&M’s 75th birthday, and the special pack marking this milestone.

It took a few mistakes for me to internalize how much the package changed. At first, I didn’t realized that the logo color has been reversed. The M&Ms logo in the special pack is white instead of the standard brown.

Out of habit, I started painting the logo brown late last night. I was struggling and I didn’t know why. When I finally figured it out, I wiped off the brown. This morning I repaired the damage.

Happy 75th, M&M! makes me smile. I’m not exactly sure why. Do you?

My Studio Reveal: Before and After

April 13, 2017 by Beverly

What a difference a wall color makes!

When you come visit during my Open Studio, you’ll see the space has been totally transformed by a fresh coat of white paint.

Before.

After.

It’s like starting all over with a clean slate – for myself and my paintings, which will look very different! Here’s a sneak peak.

Before.

After.

My new white walls were inspired by Marie Kondo and Agnes Martin. There may be 50 Shades of White, but I only needed two – Decorators White for the walls and Super White for the trim.

While the new white walls really spark joy, getting there didn’t.

That mess is behind me now. It’s time to move forward and hang paintings – if I can only get myself to put that first nail in…

Message to self: Get over it. Embrace the positive change! Right?

RiverArts Studio Tour Events

April 8, 2017 by Beverly

You might think that my upcoming April 22 and 23rd Open Studio is just a weekend event. It’s actually part of a large and ambitious annual local program, the RiverArts Artists Studio Tour.

The first event was an Artists Welcome Breakfast on March 17.

Most recently, Jay and I went to a RiverArts kickoff event for the 2017 Studio Tour (Hastings-on-Hudson Municipal Building, 7 Maple Avenue). Every artist on the Tour was invited to submit a work for this exhibition (open all of April).

This attractive banquet table greeted us as we came through the door. There was quite a crowd. Of course I whipped out my camera at the sight of food…

Kudos to Doug Coe, Executive Director of RiverArts, for shepherding this entire event, and to active Board Member Kara Lenkeit, who always has a smile on her face.

A special thanks this year to Peggie Blizzard (with her artist husband Larry) for bringing back the Dobbs Ferry ArtWalk. Due to her initiative, along with Ellen Crane, I’ll have a painting in a Dobbs Ferry store for two weeks to gain awareness. (Now I just have to pick which one!)

This year I chose to show Oreo Mandala: Studio Tour Oreo Cookie Contest Entries since its concept is inextricably bound to the Studio Tour itself.

This original print is a composite of 9 unique Oreos bitten by 9 different people who all came to my Open Studio in previous years.

Let me introduce you to Marisa Silverstein, another participating artist, who kindly took this photo. She and I both attended a timely and informative workshop on “Artists Using Social Media” – tips and tricks to increase your web visibility around special events like the Studio Tour. Luke Joerger of Hastings Digital hastingsdigital.com presented a lot of useful information which Marisa and I are still processing.

The workshop and a post-workshop discussion with Marisa inspired this post.

With only two weeks to go, it’s time to hunker down and get my studio in shape. Easier said than done since the room was dismantled by the painters last week. Wish me luck!

Thank you RiverArts!

May 11, 2016 by Beverly

Sometimes things in life have unanticipated consequences, many of them positive. Our 1997 move to a home in Ardsley from a smaller townhouse changed my artistic life.

After two years, I transformed the living room with its 3 walls of natural light pouring through the windows into my studio. I started painting regularly and soon had a body of work to show.

So I decided to have my first Open Studio and participate in the RiverArts Studio Tour. RiverArts is dynamic and growing non-profit organization serving the Rivertowns of Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington and Ardsley.

That was over 15 years ago. The successful expansion of this event (now 80 artists strong) and RiverArts itself is reflected in this beautiful 4 page multi-color brochure featuring a painting by every artist on the tour. Mentally contrast this with the 1999 2-color single page flyer with a map and list. (You’ll have to your imagination since I can’t find the old pdf).

Now let me introduce you to Jen Moore Smith, the producer of the 2016 RiverArts Studio Tour, a huge task that has grown to include three preview exhibitions in different venues during the month of April, a Saturday night artist reception, a closing reception, and an extensive Studio Tour website including bios/statements and multiple images from each artist. Just uploading 400 images was a big task!

And Jennifer did her job gracefully and thoroughly from start to finish, always smiling, never losing her sense of humor. Bravo Jennifer! As the tour continues to grow in size and complexity, hopefully the management of the tour will be split among a multiple people.

And did I mention that these events served food? Wonderful food and a lot of it too, which you can see in the photos from the Hastings Municipal Building Preview Exhibition, where one of my prints was shown. This event was free and open to the public. (Why do I keep thinking Last Supper when I look at the first photo?)

Here’s the lady who was responsible for this banquet, Patricia van Essche. She recently joined the RiverArts Board and this elaborately presented food magically appeared this year. As you can see, she did a great job! Now my husband looks forward to these events with newfound enthusiasm.

I want to take a moment to say thank you to Jennifer Moore Smith, the unsung hero of the tour, to Doug Marouk-Coe, the Executive Director of RiverArts, as well as the Board, and to all the volunteers who made this event possible. A special thanks to Patricia, who sponsored a successful artist lunch at her house in March, and looks out for all of the artists in the community like our mother hen.

I look forward to all the upcoming RiverArts events, especially the Music Tour, which is listed on the website. With so much going on, it’s an exciting time for RiverArts and the Rivertowns.

Open Studio: Behind The Scenes

May 7, 2016 by Beverly

Now that my Open Studio is behind me and I’m reassembling my painting space, I’m starting to realize what a good job we did cleaning up. Maybe even too good.

During the event, many people surprised me by asking where I actually painted – and we were standing right in my studio. That’s probably because my studio (our former living room) looked like this after taking out a few easels and a table, among other things.

They probably just knew an artist studio couldn’t possibly be this neat all the time! My goal was to make it feel like a studio with a gallery space (although I’ve never been to a gallery with brown walls.)

To my dismay, all my stuff is steadily creeping back into the room, day by day, table by table, box by box. It’s starting to look like it did in the weeks before the Open Studio. Tidying guru Marie Kondo would definitely not approve, and neither do I.

First came the TV table which had morphed into a front hall sign-in table for a week. Then came several boxes with canvases and panels. And my neatly lined up paints… well, they don’t look like that any more.

I’m finally getting ready to take down my staircase display. Friday night before the Open Studio, Bonnie took the initiative to fine-tune it, with a physical agility that I can only envy. She really stepped up when I was getting tired and a bit discouraged with my progress.

Bonnie had a right to be proud of her handiwork. Lots of chocolate here for you chocoholics.

I played with all my little panels and drawings for longer than I care to admit, until I came up with this arrangement. Good thing I’m not actively playing the piano any more so this can stay put.

A week before the event, I realized I didn’t have any work-in-progress to show. So I started applying the oil paint to the sketch of my next vending painting. While I didn’t get as far as I would have liked, it was enough to show the process that I go through with vending machine paintings, starting with a detailed sketch, the logos, and the dark background early on to let the bright colors really pop.

I also began a 16 x 20 inch macarons painting on wood panel, which is what I’ll go back to this weekend.

Since the Open Studio date was a few weeks earlier than usual and the weather was cool, I couldn’t plant flowers this year. In fact, we had many April nights with frost warnings so we’re still flowerless the first week in May. Jay brought the coat rack up from the basement this year and people actually used it.

I did manage to get my haircut in plenty of time, and I liked how it came out. So I knew all was right with the world.

All in all, I was pretty happy with how the preparations went this year.

There is, however, no reason to reinvent the wheel every year. As soon as I finish this blog post, I am going to start a behind the scenes Open Studio To Do List and file it away for 2017, timetable and all. Anything to reduce stress is a good thing.

The more organized I am behind the scenes, the more time I’ll have to paint. And maybe, just maybe, the memory of how much I have been enjoying a pristine studio space will motivate me to make permanent changes in my artistic life. Stay tuned.

Thank You For Coming!

April 22, 2016 by Beverly

I just want to thank all of you who came to my Open Studio last weekend, to those who called and emailed their support – and to the weather gods who gave us a beautiful day here in the New York area.

There was a steady stream of people all day from different parts of our lives. Jay, Bonnie and I were ready and waiting, with lots of desserts – painted and real. My newest series of 5 candy bars, Icons of the Candy Vending World, greeted you from its place of honor on the fireplace.

I always welcome the opportunity to show my new work and get feedback from all of you who bring in fresh perspectives and new ideas. My family and I are kind of “desensitized” to all these sweets. To mix things up a bit, I took a detour and painted Avocados from a Manhattan salad bar. I loved it when Johanna arrived early on and commented right away, “My doctor wants me to eat what’s on the left, and I want to eat what’s on the right”. How true!

It’s nice to make a sale near the beginning of the weekend. Here’s the first purchaser with Westminster, London, a going away present for a good friend relocating there (yes, I do enjoy painting subjects besides desserts). What a thoughtful present!

This wall of wood panel paintings sure did attract a lot of attention the whole weekend! The Kit Kat sold right away, and I received a commission for a Tootsie Roll painting since this one sold (oops! missed my opportunity to use those little red dots you see in galleries…).

Then Lynn, a talented artist herself, arrived from Brooklyn. We were chatting away since I hadn’t seen her since my first show at OK Harris Works of Art in Soho (don’t want to think about how many years passed by). It was so wonderful to reconnect!

Sometimes the most fun was just to watch who walked through the door. Current and past winners of my annual Oreo Cookie Contest came, starting with Blake, the 2015 Winner holding his “portrait”, Blake’s Bite.

The 2014 Winner, Samantha, is second from the left between my nephew, Mark, and Bonnie, along with her friend Janki.

Here’s the mother and brother of Sadie, the 2012 Oreo Cookie Contest Winner. It was so good to see Susan and Jake (how he has grown!). Susan is so enthusiastic about my work and such a sunny personality that it’s a pleasure to be around her.

Let me introduce you to Samantha, a loyal Oreo Cookie Contest participant, with her family.

Many of Jay’s bridge buddies came, some of whom I knew like, Jill, one of Jay’s regular partners, with her husband Farley.

Here we have our New York Philharmonic Box 5 Tier 3 buddies (Saturday night B series) from Bridgeport CT, who we met at Lincoln Center 5 years ago. Talk about surprises!

And then there was my long time friend, Ilene and her sister Helen. Having Ilene there was absolutely wonderful since we worked together on the M&M Mars account at DMB&B Advertising (yes, the agency world of Don Draper on Mad Men was right on!). Ilene totally bowled me over when she brought out Bonnie’s 1990 baby announcement – a folded diaper with a diaper pin in it (don’t know where we got the time to do that with a new baby!). She also brought a holiday photo card of Laura and Bonnie when we measured their ages in single digits.

Oh, how I wish I had a photo of that moment, but my camera was in the kitchen and my path was mobbed with visitors (a good thing), as it was most of the afternoon. Next year I’ll remember to ask someone to take photos. I did manage to take a few pictures of the desserts before they were totally wiped out. Do you think there’s another Oreo Cookie Cake painting in my future?

Now I face the challenging task of whittling down these 2016 Oreo Cookie Contest entries to the finalists (so we have more room to eat!), photographing them, and choosing the winner.

All in all, it was a successful Open Studio weekend. So thanks again, and hope to see you next year – if not before then. My door is always open.

The Team

May 9, 2014 by Beverly

As in most successful endeavors, there is a support team who works behind the scenes. A special thank you goes to my family for their help on my Open Studio weekend. My husband, Jay, cheerfully ran a seemingly endless list of errands leading up to the event, and my youngest daughter, Bonnie, handled many of the numerous nitty gritty details and helped keep me organized (the teacher in her came out!).

Given that I am a food painter, no occasion passes by without serving food. What do you think we offered besides Oreos? Desserts, of course! Bonnie was in charge of the edible food (how did that healthy looking fruit sneak onto the table?). She is an accomplished baker, as you can see from the Chocolate Cherry Trifle hanging on the wall that she whipped up for me to paint.

Finally, I want to thank Maritza who helped with the setup and graciously manned the Oreo Cookie Contest table for two days.

You all made a great team and I couldn’t have done this without you!

Open Studio

May 8, 2014 by Beverly

Thank you everyone for coming to my Open Studio and making it such a successful event! The turnout was great, the questions insightful, and the feedback meaningful. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with all of you.

Having the opportunity to dialog with you always opens up the doors to new ideas, creative directions, and potential explorations. Certainly that was the case and it is much appreciated.

Hope you come back again soon!