Exhibition News and the Finished Kitchen

Ahhh. It feels good to be done with this one. I got really sick this week and had to power through the last few hours of the painting, but I needed to get it done for my solo exhibition next week. The exhibition is at Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in Ashville, NC and it opens on March 1st. The show is open until June 2nd, so you have lots of time to see it if you can't make it to the opening. Also, the work will be available to view on the galleries website: www.bluespiral1.com

"Evolution of a Kitchen"
36" x 45"

Kitchen, part 4

More progress! I've been working on some other paintings lately, so I put this one on the back-burner for a couple of weeks. Since the last post, I've started to add more objects that were in the kitchen and refine areas. The difficult thing with this painting is figuring out when I have pushed and pulled the objects enough to achieve the idea (or feeling) I want to get across. I am also having fun capturing the glow from the window.

Kitchen progress 3

Here is another progress shot of the kitchen. I finally covered the surface of the canvas with paint and the composition felt much more complete.

kitchen progress

This is what I have after 4 more sittings. I'm starting to get excited about it now because it's starting to look like something. The interesting thing about this painting is that it is evolving with the kitchen.

Painting Process

Hey guys and gals. I'm currently working on a painting of my kitchen and I'm posting my process of the piece. I only work like this on larger paintings (about 30 x 40" and larger) that require a lot of planning and preparation. A few weeks ago I posted the initial line drawing I created after studying the subject for a few weeks. I scanned in the large drawing, printed it out at approx. 4" x 6" and began the value study. Just like the drawings, the value study was done from life. I then scanned in the value study and tweaked the composition until I felt it was correct; aside from cropping the image, I had to reduce the size of the ceiling to get the desired effect of the composition.

I forgot to record the step where I gridded the final composition and transfered it to the final canvas, though you can still see parts of the drawing that have yet to be painted over. I used vine charcoal to transfer the drawing because it doesn't mix with the paint and flakes off easily when paint touches it. Once this step is done, I start painting. Lately the weather hasn't been cooperating so I've only been able to paint for about an hour before I've had to stop (this is one of the issues of working from life and with a fleeting effect of light). The final painting is 36" x 45" and this is what I have after the first 4 sittings.

details

Here are a couple detail shots of 2 paintings I'm working on.

This is the final drawing for another painting I will be starting soon. I'm still working on cropping this image.