WOAS - Vegas

Aside from painting for a couple juried events I have one last event for this year and that's the World of Art Show in Vegas. A big deal for me because it's a new sandbox to explore and my first major road show. It will be at the Wynn - nice digs too. I have a 10x20 space to fill which means crating and shipping many of my larger works across country...a new wrinkle to my art game. I'm looking forward to it because Vegas is familiar ground...hopefully I'll get to see some old friends too.

Doing this show will be a serious learning curve; cross country shipping, marketing material, and perhaps most important, making the right choices for an unknown market.  This one is wide open to a global audience. Can I hold my ground and sell?...I wounder what the Vegas odds would be on that.....LOL

I've already made my main selections along with a healthy group of 8x10s I can stack vertically in groups of 3 or 4. These will add some separation and structure to space left by my larger paintings. I look at these as samples of my brushwork and range as an artist. 

In my Crossroads gallery I actually have a 10x20 alcove so I know what my WOAS space will be like (below) The grey blue area is 10x20. (left wall is 8' but right is 10') You can see in the photos how structured and effective a stack or double stack of 8x10s framed alike can be. Looking at it here I might take the red ottoman too..:=)

CROSSROADS 11-16-12 OPENING 

The gallery is all set up; only waiting for the food and music to arrive for the art centers bi-monthly art festivities taking place later in the evening. Photographer Rebecca D'Angelo will cover the opening so I'll have more photos to share a bit later.

My double stacked of 8x10s adds a wonderful design element to the flow on this side of the gallery

 A NEW PAINTING

#756 Koi & Sun Drenched Lily Pads 30x30 oil on linen (11-25-12)
  

A SOLD PAINTING

#615 Venetian Gods 36x36 oil on linen
Congratulations - LeGrand Fine Art, Richmond, Va.

Later..  

Looking for my next project

My fall season has been busy with back to back openings, soiree and the like - more juried exhibits to paint for than one can count. I'll only enter two for the 2013 season; OPA National and Greenhouse Salon International out of Texas. So, I have to start now - I'm guessing this will be my next project. That means lots of fresh new square paintings in my immediate future (30x30's max for Greenhouse and 34x34s max for OPA). OPA is important because I only need one more national show to apply for signature status...one of my original goals. Greenhouse because this is a gallery I'm interested in and their juried exhibit it a good way to get through the front door. I've exhibited there several times in the past to earn a few peer credits. However now I look at them differently, because as a painter, my work has matured and I think it's time to retest the water. That is, if I get anything worthwhile to enter...:=)

Of course I'll paint for the maximum wall space and exposure allowable. The snakes fill every square inch with my competition.......and hang frame to frame which I despise! 
  

 A NEW PAINTING

#754 Morning Grazing 30x30 oil on linen (11-19-12) 

SOLD PAINTINGS
     

 

#641 Matador 44x40 oil on linen 
Congratulations to Richard Stravitz Fine Art Gallery, Va. Beach
 

#724 Sunrise 8x10 oil on linen
Congratulations to Crossroads Art Center, Richmond, Va.

Later..

Painting large is tricky

If it's so tricky then why do it? I'm not totally sure other than when it's big like this 77x66 you're in it....at least until you step back because while your painting it covers your full vision area. I can tell you as a painter there's a sense of freedom as if there are no boundaries, but of course we humans do eventually establish boundary lines. However, until then I have some choices. The first one that comes to the forefront is a more abstract approach over my normal wet-in-wet transitional style. Nothing I would think about on a small canvas, although I have done small transitional paintings bordering on abstraction called scrap paintings; so named because I would take my palette scrapings and randomly apply it to a canvas panel with a palette knife. After a few days or once the surface was totally covered, I would study it....you know, looking for possibilities - one always crops-up; so off I'd go......messing with it for an extra few minutes.

Staring at my "big one" I pulled these out of storage. 

SOME SCRAP PAINTINGS

 #367 Looks like a wave - added a sunrise 11x14

 #392 Looks like a Vermillion Koi so I added some lilies 11x14

 #369 Looks like a landscape - added a sunrise and some tree branches 11x14

It was fun and useful. There was no wasted paint and used up some old cotton panels. I liked all of them too.  

Now every once in awhile I make an unlikely move like the painting below......as you can see, full of energy and oddly related  to my scrap paintings completed at a later date. Perhaps all  preludes in future things to come...

#335 Venetian Equestrian 20x24 Oil on linen panel 

DAY 1 

My 2-hour wash blockout establishing my composition. I liked where it were it was going - lots of possibilities....

DAY 2

I always start at the top laying in solid background colour - basically avoiding the lily pads and fish. So today, like yesterday, I only had a few hours - again late in the day so I wasn't able to finish.....not a good way to work. I paid a price too, guess what? I forgot my mission...and followed my normal routine - too late to backtrack......you gotta love senior moments..LOL

 

DAY 3

I had a full day and was able to complete my first solid paint layer including starting my Koi.  I like to go as far with each Koi as possible - this includes painting the areas around each. Sometimes you only get one chance to make this part work - if I'm not careful everything after reduces the spontaneity so I go back in, prepared to cover good work.

 

Detail of the pair of yellow and black Koi
 
DAY 4

Generally I start adding detail into my background before moving into more detailed work such as the Koi. You might call it a safe warmup to the more serious stuff to come

DAY 5 

 

DETAILS 

Today I also got into the lower half completing this Koi lurking in the lily pads

DAY 6

I wasn't happy with the overall colour - much too saturated and leaning heavily to green and blue - so I started adding warm rose tones to my top lily pads - it helped, so I pretty much continued on for the remainder of the day getting the top half to a finished state.

DAY 7  

As you can see, the painting is very much together. I dressed up the top white and red Koi - added more refinements; then spending the remainder of my day on the lower half. 

I actually thought it might be time to sign off but soon, after some study, the lower left section of blue water wasn't working....incomplete thoughts...bummer 

 DAY 8 - A REPAINT & FINISHED 

I got up knowing I had to go back in and repaint a fairly large section of blue water around middle black Koi - I didn't have a clear idea yesterday and ended up diddling around with it. However after sleeping on it, it did give me a road map. So with a fresh mind I got to it!

REPAINTED AREA

 

 Before (Interior LED)

 
 After (outdoor)

 FINISHED PAINTING

#749 Black and Yellow Koi oil on linen 72x66 (11-13-12)
(Painting shot outdoors in natural daylight)
  
  DETAILS

My paint was reasonably dry so with the help of my medium Neo-Megilp by Gamblin I was able to add paint and maintain my natural flow seamlessly into my unaffected areas...as you can see it worked:=)

 

 

 

 

All in all not a bad outcome for an 8 day painting......perhaps next time a bit more abstract 

Later 

Today is a" big one"

When I got up this morning I just didn't want to mess with the small stuff - I didn't want to do a billboard either. Aside from other commitments the Crossroads gallery needs a major new painting for the November 16th opening.....I don't have it....Yet:=)

I have material for a 72x66, a bit big for my easel's height capacity of 68", but not my easel.  Most problematic, it goes well beyond my being able to transport it inside my SUV.......even so, I like the size.

My first challenge will be stretching it....no question, 72x66 is a "big one", so I decided to do it face down laying flat on the floor (first time). I originally saw this on a U-Tube video but well before I started painting larger formats so it didn't really get my attention until now.  

 PHOTOS

Face down, 2 -3" salvage - 1.5" deep stretchers

3 to 4 staples on each opposing side (equal pressure)

Canvas grips, staple gun (3/8) staples- easy to remove

Stapled taut to each corner

Corner detail

Clean fold

Shown with a 30x30

That was a good move, it was a simple, easy, efficient way to do a large gallery wrap canvas by myself. 

Gallery wrap in this case would have several advantages. If my floater frame is late I can go frame-less. In either event I want neat edges to paint making it presentable for any situation.

PROBLEM SOLVING

My vertical painting is a bit beyond my easel's height capability of 66-68".....so a little engineering is in order. 

 PHOTOS

1x4 added to the back side with screws - bottom edge at easels max. ht.

detail of screw at each side

I used clamps to secure my canvas frame although it could have easily rested on my masts rollers allowing finger touch side movement. 

Back view

Front view

By lunch time I had a 72x66 gallery-wrap canvas stretched, on my easel and ready to go.....scraping my studios low 8 foot ceilings....another annoying problem, but nothing I can do about it right now other than work with it!

I'll take the rest of the day studying my new size and figuring out what it is I actually want to paint. I'm fairly certain it will be Koi because I really wanted to end this Koi session with a large canvas. 

So far I've completed (4) Koi canvases - of the four my first was exceptional and normally my queue to stop, change subjects and move on, but at 36x36 it wasn't the right size....in fact it was meant to be a warmup.....I wasn't in the mood for the "big one" so continued on....LOL never can tell about these things.  


Later