Featured Painting: Canopy

I don’t want to overstate it, but 2 months without a large scale painting is probably the longest gap I’ve experienced since going to college. I have the convenient excuse of spending 5 days prepping and installing the biggest show of my life so far, but if I'm being honest I just got comfortable enjoying a little free time alongside the stress-free nature of smaller-scale drawing-based work like the Level series. 

But the truth is that there is just something about working large scale that can't be replicated no matter how many smaller-scale paintings you do.

I enjoyed my break, but once inspiration hit, I couldn't get back on a big canvas soon enough.

My main idea was pretty much what you see to the left. I was picturing a larger dark area contrasted by a colorful column of sorts and expected a large portion of the canvas to remain relatively bare almost like a large scale water color. 

The dark shape and column took form almost immediately but progress slowed and as day turned to night, I had a hard time taking next steps. I had gotten when I initially wanted, but it wasn't done and I wasn't finding obvious inspirationon what was needed next.

The large dark area continued to grow as the night wore on, but it wasn't until just before turning in for bed that I had a vision of a curved purple figure emerging from the dark. After hours of staring, I had a plan.

I started the next morning around 8AM and dove right in. Each mark inspired the next; each step illuminated the path ahead; 8 hours of painting flowed easily and energetically until the last marks were made. As I reviewed the painting over the next few hours, I pulled out a new 24x48" canvas and got to work on the next one. 

Canopy started exactly as I hoped, and ended very far from expectations. I'm very happy with the outcome and excited for its debut this weekend at Lifelines, opening April 4th at 6PM at Scout Gallery.