The Northwest

The Northwest. Oil on panel, 8" x 8". $295. [buy now]

Shopping for barware has its perks. For one, you get more barware, duh. But this time, I got a new favorite drink as well.

I can't spot Reneé Cebula's Raising the Bar trailer without stopping, and the woman knows what she's doing. She spends a lot of time in the Perry district near my house. Guaranteed sales. Anyway, the last time I spotted her she was engaged in conversation with Ash Hayden. We hadn't met, so she introduced us and explained that he had tended bar for a well-known cocktail establishment here in Spokane. Ash is now working on a new project, an online bartender training course called The Bar Wit. (Check out the link for the kickstarter details. I'm excited to see what happens with this!)

Although I already had the number of recipes I was shooting for, I explained my project to Ash and asked if he might be willing to contribute. Within days he had texted me the recipe for The Northwest. Inspired by native northwest plants, Ash's drink pairs gin with rhubarb-based Zucca amaro and mint. 

I doubly loved this cocktail, and here's why. 

1. It's delicious and gets better with every sip.

2. Zucca amaro is on my hard-to-find list, but I already had it for another favorite recipe in the book, the Bad News from Houston. More bang for your Zucca buck!

The Northwest will be on display at Mizuna this Friday for the book release party. Please join us, pick up a book and find your own new favorite drink!

Cocktails are in the Cards!

My husband Paul is an idea man. 

Whenever I feel down about my business, he'll toss out twelve different things I could be doing, I won't get around to any of them, and then I'll feel worse. This time was different.

Last week, he asked out of the blue, "how many recipes do you have?" "Between both books?" I added them up in my head. "Fifty two." "What if you had them printed on playing cards?"

He went on to explain that often bartenders use flash cards to memorize drink recipes, so using my paintings and recipes on cards was a natural. While I spent maybe a minute marveling at the fact that I had exactly fifty-two recipes, Paul found an online printer that made custom playing cards. Fifty-four unique cards per deck---one for each recipe plus a front and back cover.  Three days later they were designed and ready to order. Boom!

Trouble was, the two shipping options. Free shipping would get them to me in two weeks, in the middle of Yuletide. They are perfect stocking stuffers, so that's great, but it would be nice to have more opportunities to sell them. Well okay, shipping option number two might get them to me in time for the book release party. For $165. Nope. 

Free shipping it was, with fingers crossed.

Damn, I love a nice surprise. This morning a cheerful Fedex man arrived at the door with a big box of Mixology Cocktail Cards. Ordered October 30th, delivered November 2. And they are beautiful. (I think a shoutout to Printerstudio.com is in order here. )

Sooooo.... get your Mixology deck o' cocktail cards this Friday at the Mizuna release party, or the following weekend at Yuletide! $10 each, and the perfect gift for your cocktail-consuming friends and relatives. Already own the books? Keep them nice and tidy, and keep these handy wipe-clean cards at the bar. I know I will.

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El Corazón, and Book Release Friday!

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El Corazón. Oil on panel, 8" x 8".

Mixology With a Twist debuts Friday with a party at Mizuna, so it's time to celebrate with El Corazón, by Mizuna bartender Sherrece Scott. 

This painting nearly kicked my ass. Let's just say it was NOT a "one and you're done." Having a history with the brick walls at Mizuna (the site of one of my earliest art shows), I really wanted that background, but getting contrast with the brilliant opaque red of the drink was tough. I had better luck with one aspect, at least. The week before starting this painting, Willi Sheller taught me how to make a heart-shaped garnish. Perfect timing!

The story behind this drink involves a bit of coincidence as well. Here's an excerpt from the book: 

Sherrece Scott, bartender at Spokane’s Mizuna, promised to share her new drink, Satan’s Sap, long before work began on Mixology With a Twist. At Mizuna many months later, I pored over a lengthy new bar menu, finally ordering El Corazón. As it happened, El Corazón was Sherrece’s newly-renamed Satan’s Sap. Rich, fruity-but-not-sweet, and spicy, El Corazón had me at the first sip. This drink’s balance is crucial. Sherrece, ever the perfectionist, tastes both lime juice and cayenne each time she makes it, adjusting to be sure it is sufficiently spicy and not overly tart.

What I didn't have room to mention is that Sherrece bent over backward to make this recipe accessible for home bartenders. One ingredient, a frozen blood orange purée, is easily available to restaurants, but not so much to retail shoppers. Sherrece spent weeks trying every grocery-store fruit concentrate she could get her hands on until she found one that perfectly mimicked the flavor AND color of the original purée in the drink.

Sherrece will be on hand to make El Corazon—plus many more scrumptious concoctions—Friday night. Come on down and have one!

Willi Sheller at Liberty

8-1/2. Oil on panel, 12" x 12". $595. [buy now.]

During our first trip to Liberty on Seattle's Capitol Hill, we had the experience of meeting Willi Sheller. "Meeting" is probably not the right word. "Being entertained by"? Not sure how to explain it, but the minute I mentioned the book project to him, he disappeared behind the bar for about twenty minutes, then reemerged with this:

Meet Tikitty. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the cherries in the lime adorning this tiki drink are on fire. When I could stop laughing long enough to try it, I found it was delicious. 

After that Willi brought out some more serious original libations, including the 8-1/2 (illustrated above), which he said he named for his favorite Fellini film that he'd never seen. Then, he killed my cucumber phobia with his Pimp's Cup, a twist on the Pimm's Cup using local BroVo Jammy vermouth. Here is the painting, which is an homage to what happened next:

Pimp's Cup. Oil on panel, 12" x 12". $595. [buy now]

So, what happened next was that I tried to figure out how the hell Willi had made the intricately woven garnish on my 8-1/2. I couldn't do it, so he went to the bar, grabbed a cutting board, some tools, and a few pieces of fruit, and proceeded to spend several minutes demonstrating garnishes.

Please keep in mind that, a) I am not a videographer, and b) I was at least two drinks in at this point, and not expecting to make a video. I did my best under the circumstances, and here are the results:

For another video and an actual photo of Willi, join me after the jump.

Yuletide 2015

Solstice Party. Oil on panel, 8" x 8".

I'm coming back to Yuletide!

Last year was my first time at Yuletide and it was a big success, so I am thrilled to have been juried in again for 2015.

This year,  Spokane Art School's holiday art and craft sale will take place at the Downtown Public Library located at 906 West Main. The event kicks off with a private party on Thursday, November 12 (get tickets here), then opens to the public Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14.

I will bring lots of new work including framed and unframed original Mixology paintings, giclée reproductions, and my original Mixology classic cocktail books as well as my new book, Mixology with a Twist.

Here are the details:
Where: Downtown Public Library, 906 West Main*
When: November 12 – 14, 2015
Hours: Thurs. Nov. 12, opening party, 5 – 8 p.m.
       Fri. – Sat. Nov. 13 – 14, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

*Please note that there is parking beneath the library building, as well as on the street and at several   
nearby paid parking lots and garages.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Bitter Honey and Spice, November Rain)

Bitter, Honey and Spice. Oil on panel, 12" x 12". NFS.

Mixology With a Twist is almost done! All of the paintings are done, too... and in several cases, more than once.

As these things happen, the book progressed, and so it evolved. The paintings' style became more consistent over weeks and months. Which is great. Except that the earliest efforts now looked out of place. Worse yet, they didn't do justice to the amazing drinks they represent.

So, back to the drawing board I went. Repeatedly. Bitter, Honey and Spice (above) is the third iteration of the illustration that is now, just maybe, fit to represent my favorite cocktail from Eugene, Oregon's Izakaya Meiji Company.

But for all that, B, H, & S is not the record holder for bad paintings. It comes in a distant second to Curtis Day's November Rain (below), which I painted no fewer than five times. Five!

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November Rain. Oil on panel, 8" x 8".

As much as I love the drink, it almost got cut from the book owing to the creative block it inspired. Thankfully the fifth time was the charm. I used a bit of reflection trickery to bring some color into the almost-black drink set against Casper Fry's signature brick wall, finally making it pop.

Both original paintings, along with thirty-one others, will be on display at Mizuna for the Mixology With a Twist First Friday book release party.

In the meantime and against my better judgement, I have posted most of the rejected paintings below the fold (two versions of November Rain were so bad they were never photographed).

New Work Available on Daily Paintworks

Manhattans by the Pitcher Study. Oil on panel, 6" x 6". $125. Sold.

I'm back from the Bend/Sausalito trip, and it was a great experience. I met lots of fun new customers and many paintings found new homes. And of course, I tried new cocktails! I'm super excited about a new drink I discovered at the Dogwood Cocktail Cabin in Bend, Oregon.

More on that later, but in the meantime, a few of my favorites are still looking for love. This sweet little Manhattan painting is now available at my Daily Paintworks Mixology Gallery. I'll post more over the next week or so, along with new paintings for Mixology With a Twist.