Finish Line

Another 12 hours or so of work on this piece since the last photo. I think it is finished. At least the hard stuff. Now a coat of paint on the sides of the canvas since it will hang unframed, and a coat of retouch varnish over everything.

As I said in an earlier post, the painting process slows to a crawl as I finish a piece like this. Details are everything in these car paintings and having the correct details are crucial to the collectors. Getting shapes shadows and reflections right, and graphics painted in perspective are the most painstaking parts of the piece. I'm happy with it so I'll take it to Jacksonville early next week and hope this is what the client envisioned.

Tomorrow begins getting ready for the annual spring open house held this Saturday at our group studio http://www.mcraeartstudios.com/ . I need to finish up a couple of landscape paintings and make my studio presentable. We usually get a large crowd at our openings and it's a big effort to get ready. Food, bar and clean up - spruce up. Let's hope it brings some art buyers.

Starts, Finishes, Remakes

Here are three paintings, two finished, one underway. The landscape in the middle is 36x48" and ready to be shipped. The one below, same size, has had a facelift from it's previous image. It stayed around the studio long enough for me to see some flaws I wanted to fix. Artist license.

The automobile painting is a commission I mentioned earlier. The sketch is seen in the lower part of the photo and the final version is partially done. It will take a bit more detail and a few more general applications of paint to give it some character and color depth. The auto paintings are particularly difficult unless you problem solve before you attack the large final piece. I did my homework on this one so there is not as much anxiety and suspense.

I wrote on March 3rd about the occasional auto art commissions I receive. I enjoy the opportunities to paint shiny things and value the relationships I have developed with people who collect rare and historic cars. I also wrote about the demands of commissioned paintings. As the artist, I have to first fullfill the vision of the client.

The painting that illustrated that earlier post was a rough for the client to approve. He wanted some changes that sent me back to the sketchpad. The proportions needed to change from a horizontal format to more of a square. Also more landscape as part of the environment the cars were to be seen in. The sliding car to the right of the larger one. Here is the latest version. We'll know Thursday whether this one will make a good final version.