Here is my newest painting. It was a commission and a fun one. It is a later version of one I did in 1993 called, “I Left My Art in San Francisco”. And it had been a good long while since I’d done one this large. A 24×30″ painting for me is quite an undertaking.
A large painting, I like to tell people, is an act of faith on my part. With the detailed work I do, basically, it doesn’t look like it will work until the last few days. That is when it starts to come together, to come to life. So for more than a month, it looked like is wasn’t going to work. They never look like they will.
Over the years, I’ve wanted to photograph a large painting from beginning to end. But I never remember to do it and then, gave up the very large pieces. This one I did remember to do though. So, here it is in a series, start to finish.
I have to say that, even as the artist, I look at it coming together and in the end, think, “Wow, look what I did.” I must say, I couldn’t be happier with it.
It was not without its aggravation though. One of the client’s few requests was an Australian flag. I had printed out a copy of it for reference. But as these new printers use so much ink, I only did a small wallet size of it. I had not varnished the painting until it was back from the photographer, so, I was getting the shipping address from the gentleman’s e-mail, where he’d included a copy of the flag for me to see.
I was looking at it and noticed something was off. I came to realize that the printer had cropped off one of the stars on the flag. One can use artistic license as a good excuse for many things, that was not one of them. So, I had to go back, paint out all the stars on the flag, and repaint in the correct number. Yep; I said bad words. But good that I hadn’t varnished it yet. So, in the photographs, there is one star short on the Australian flag. Because, I forgot to photograph it again before it shipped.
Oh well, I was close.
So, I hope you enjoy the slide show of “A Long Way From Oz”, start to finish.
Here is the sky, after three re-dos. Then I was satisfied and ready for clouds.
