Day 4. Two Dunkin’ Donuts
Here’s another American icon courtesy of Dunkin’ Donuts. Two Dunkin’ Donuts In A Box was just plain fun to paint!
“Two Dunkin’ Donuts in a Box” by Beverly Shipko. Oil painting on cradled wood panel, 5 x 7 inches
The best part was painting the sprinkles in all those different colors. Is there such a thing too many sprinkles? Maybe I went a little overboard on the chocolate donut (or doughnut?).
Having said that, it was not fun to clean all the brushes. Each sprinkle color required at least one brush, often two for the shadows, to keep the colors from getting muddy. I used every small brush I own, and a few larger brushes, maybe 20 in all. Since I paint in oil which is not water soluble, it took a half hour just to clean the brushes.
Similar to yesterday’s Stack of Oreos, Dunkin’ Donuts has that aura of nostalgia and Americana. I thought about stacking multiple donuts like the Oreos, but opted for a quieter composition with one donut leaning against the other.
For you Dunkin’ Donuts aficionados out there, notice how the sprinkles cover the entire donut. A few years ago Jim, the local Dunkin’ Donuts franchise owner gave me a box of donuts to paint, and these were the last two. Today it’s the donut tips that tend to be dipped in sprinkles. Apparently there is such a thing as too many sprinkles from a cost perspective.
In a way, Two Dunkin’ Donuts may turn out to be another heritage painting like this 20 x 24 inch oil painting I did a while back. (Guess I like boxes more than I realized.) Franchise owners get excited about the transparent logo paper, which is long gone.
It’s time to plan for Days 5 and 6 by sketching a few paintings in advance. I have to get out in front of things since I have a eye doctor appointment Thursday and will lose a chunk of the day.
If you have any ideas about other American icons to paint, I would love to hear from you! Thanks. See you again soon.