To my disbelief, a full 4-sessions on a simple 16x16 canvas below. Sometimes that's what it takes to develop an idea. Sometimes we don't see what we should either......it took me until the 3rd session to see my scale was off. As a 51 year renderer of scale and perspective unforgivable - literally thousands of drawings about accuracy, perspective, depth rendered in a way people could imagine themselves in it - the most natural thing I do.
Back in 1965 I got a plumb job as an interior renderer, replacing a 69 year retiree...... I had absolutely no experience as a renderer... my ticket in was a roll of oil paintings.....clearly they were desperate! Actually they where, replacing a key player is a serious undertaking. They chose to start over and I got the first slot. Moments after being introduced and shown my office I would spend the next 14 years in. The late Warren Billings was walking out the door gave me a 15-minute lesson on space, perspective and depth......with a parting note. "Adjust it to look right and you'll be fine"!
I never saw him again but.......time to google
Warren Billings! You gotta love the information highway today!
I forgot after he retired, we often used Warren for special projects - like the murals on First National Bank of Martinsville, Va., now a Sun Trust Bank.....nice to see Warrens work is well preserved for all to enjoy. I think Louis Ballou was the architect. I was very involved on this projects design and execution with my mentor and teacher Bob Magann. The original carpet is gone... in my mind a shame, because it was equally important to how Ballou, Magann and Larivey left it almost 49 years ago. Just goes to show you "ART WILL SURVIVE" beyond most anything else because Warren was the easiest to get information on. Those three men Ballou, Magann and Billings were a formidable team when it came to colonial architecture and design. Magann was unequaled in Bank design. Many of the things we use in banks today were ideas developed by Magann in conjunction with Diebold Safe and The American Furniture and Fixture Company. I believe one being the drive up window for banks. The first one was installed at the Beckley National Bank in Beckley, West Virginia. The other was designing a workable pass through drawer used at tellers stations as in bullet proof protection screens frequently at banks.......especially in DC. Bob Magann was really good at it too! He designed and installed over 2000 bank installations in his career...no one tracked that. All these men in one form or another contributed to my education.
Louis Ballou was also a very accomplished water colourist - in fact we all did architectural and interior renderings and made free hand drawings on a daily basis.....often on lunch napkins. There was no computer assist in those days. For some unknown reason this painting reminds me of all that and Billings parting comment "Adjust it to look right and you'll be fine"!
FIRST SESSION - CANVAS 1020 16X16
To add gold or not! Today its pretty dry to the touch, it's also not very stylized. So either way I have to get "back in"
SECOND SESSION
Reasonable start - OK....add some gold, only this time the real stuff......moon gold. Well, It doesn't work the same way as metal leaf....at all. Unlike metal leaf it easily disintegrates, good for edges but more difficult to work with... The champagne colour is perfect, it hangs back more - not quite as reflective as gold metal leaf...a good thing when it comes to natural or diminished light.
Since I had no plan the session ended badly. When it doesn't work....scrape it off, sleep on it or simply forget it!
THIRD SESSION
The biggest improvement was adjusting the composition and scale of the horses....off from the start. My crop has interesting effects, movement, lots of textural moves both with a brush and palette knife.....including my fingers. However the crop is the only thing out of place on the painting - very obvious in the 2nd and 3rd frame up.
Now what - a fourth session? The real issue now is getting this thing to look right at 30 feet and work in diminished light.
FOURTH SESSION
Canvas 1020 oil on linen 16x16 (1-18-16)
Mission accomplished! This little guy is finished - it reads well enough at 30 feet which is all I can ask for at this point.
This canvas was very much about edges and development and not giving up!
