Happy Hour – The Roosevelt
Oil on board, 8″x6″
We’re returning to the still life series called Happy Hour. Cocktail #2 is hot off the easel and ready for your guesses. But first, time to reveal the answer to cocktail #1 from Happy Hour – Angostura… it was a Whiskey Old Fashioned! The Old Fashioned is one of the classic cocktails, but despite the simplicity of it’s composition, there are a number of subtle changes one can make in the base ingredients to create a wide range of variants. A very good recipe can be found here on PUNCH, my go to resource for all things cocktail. If you have a favorite riff on the Old Fashioned, please share in the comments!
Returning to Happy Hour – Roosevelt, the hints are few but specific. I excluded the city name from the napkin, but suffice to say it’s arguably the most important cocktail (and food) city in North America (although I defer to our Canadian readers for any challenges to this claim), birthplace of many classic libations. Any guesses? The answer will be revealed in the next cocktail series piece in a couple weeks.
The Roosevelt is another oil composition on an 8″x6″ gesso board. The type of cocktail glass is not something I would have tackled at this point, as it’s very complex and a bit beyond my comfort zone, but it was true to the cocktail, so I gave it a go. The other challenge was the color of the drink itself, a mix of cadmium red medium, cadmium yellow deep, titanium white and ultramarine blue; there are also some bits with cadmium yellow.
Next time I’ll pay more attention to the dark values in the drink itself, as I strayed from that tenet early on, getting a bit obsessed with trying to nail down the elusive pink/orange color of the drink. If you look at the block-in picture, it’s obvious that I knew there were very dark values in the drink itself, but I didn’t paint them in properly.
And beware the challenge of painting words, especially words with fancy letters… with lots of curves… on an undulating cocktail napkin! Definitely not something to do if you’re jacked up on caffeine – it requires a steady hand and a lot of patience. I had to make a big withdrawal from my limited Bank of Zen to get through it.
I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of doing the blurry, colored bar of illuminated bottles in the background. This is also true to the actual setting of The Roosevelt and a handy approach to call upon in future compositions.
Thanks for visiting and don’t forget to post your critiques and cocktail guesses in the comments!
Cocktail Sketch
Cocktail Block-In
Cocktail Base Colors
Cocktail Progression
Cocktail Background Bar
Cocktail Napkin
ROOSEVELT || 5″ x 7″ Oil on Board || $50
Art Bern 
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Very nice, Bern! Love the colors — for both this posting and also “Angostura”. I looked up this cocktail by the name on the napkin, and learned a lot! And i think for sure you could take on a cocktail glass! When you tire of cad yellow and reds, how about the challenge of a Happy Hour gin and tonic with lime???
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Love it! Great suggestion.
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Nice work. Also, gotta’ say, I love the whale tale header for your blog!
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Thank you Eric! The whale tail is a diptych that was a fun project. I’m flattered you like it. I wrote a post about it if you’re curious – https://crashboomzip.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/diving-whale-tail/
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