Movie

The large painting is finished and I've decided on a new title: Movie.

Movie

45" x 75"     oil on linen     2014

Miami Project

The big 'movie' painting is close to completion and hopefully it will be finished by this time next week. All the figures are done and during the last three weeks I've been painting the stripes on the walls. Once the walls are done, I'll go into the final phase: adjusting some colors, glazing, pulling everything together.

lower left quadrant, stripes behind figures in progress
area ca. 26" x 36"

I've also decided that Only You is not a good title for this painting. During a recent conversation with a visitor to the studio, I realized that the title readily conjured up the famous song by the Platters. A lovely song, but that was not my intention. Usually I like my titles to be minimal, basically just tags for identification, and in this case, I didn't want viewers thinking that the narrative had some connection to the song. 

Only You is now titled Movie Theater.

Only You (in progress)

I finished the faces of the couple on the "movie screen":

size of detail: approx. 38" x 33"

I've always felt that to move forward, to break new ground, it's often necessary to take on challenges that give me a lot of trepidation, and this is especially true with the bigger paintings. In this composition, the couple on the screen was one of those challenges. While the composition worked well in the drawing, drawings are forgiving and I was worried whether it would still work when actually painted. I've juxtaposed large and small faces before, but never at such an extreme size difference. It's a big relief to have them done and to finally be able to get a full sense of the scale and how the composition is coming together.

Only You, in progress, 45" x 75"

Only You (in progress)

I'm now six weeks into this painting and here's the progress so far:

Only You, in progress, 45" x 75"

Painters looking at this photo will realize that I paint backwards. I always do the faces first, and then work out the colors of the clothing and environment. A more traditional and time-honored method is to work from back to front, from thinly painted translucent shadows to thicker opaque high-lights - as in a classic Rembrandt.

Self-Portrait with Beret
Rembrandt van Rijn
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Another traditional approach is under-painting - blocking in some colors at the beginning to help establish the tone and direction of the piece. In my work, however, I prefer to leave the linen surface as white as possible because I believe it gives the overlaying layer of color more luminosity and clarity. If I apply the paint layer to an under-painted surface, I find the color is duller, flatter, because what's underneath influences what's on top - much in the same way that when repainting a room, it will take more coats to successfully hide a darker tone.

The next step for me will be to paint the two large heads on the "movie screen" that fills the right third of the painting. After that, I will begin on the walls which will be varying tones of red.

Below are three photos of details:

detail of upper left, approx. 26" x 35"

detail of lower left-center, approx. 28" x 50"

popcorn, approx. 14" x 11"

Only You

Twelve days ago, I began work on a large oil painting of people watching a movie in a theater. It will be titled for an imaginary film of my invention: Only You.

Below is a photo of the next-to-final drawing. The composition has been pretty well worked out and the final drawing is the same, but enlarged to 45" x 75" for transferring the image to canvas. Since it will take me several months to complete this picture, I will be posting 'in progress' photos to this blog.

Only You, next to final drawing

24" x 40"     pencil on paper     2014

I'm very glad to finally have this composition on the easel; have wanted to paint the subject for a long time. 

Over the years, I've made numerous paintings on the movie theme, but they've always been set around ticket booths or theater lobbies or concession stands - never within the theater itself with a film being shown. I've done numerous sketches, but two problems always held me back: first, if the view of the screen is frontal, then the audience would be seen from behind, or barely in profile, and second, movie audiences are shadowy figures seated in darkness. These two problems seemed an unsolvable conundrum because I wanted to show the faces of the audience and I didn't want to fill 80% of a large canvas with dark and gloomy tones.

An early Renaissance artist that I greatly admire, Duccio di Buoninsegna, came to my rescue. One evening a few months ago, I was looking at a book about his work, and not thinking about the movie painting at all. The book was filled with photos of the Maestà, his major altarpiece, and the beautiful panels from the back - all now separated from the altarpiece and scattered in museums. While I was looking at several panels where Christ and Pilate are together with a group of onlookers to one side, I realized that I should just go ahead and paint my composition as I wanted, with luminous light and color - that I didn't need to have the faces of the audience lined up in correct perspective and in dark shadows to make the picture work. The conundrum was solved, at least for me.

Christ Accused by the Pharisees
Duccio di Buoninsegna
Siena, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

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Lola Too

New painting:

Lola Too

7" x 7 1/2"     oil on linen     2014

I like the abstract possibilities and the narrative of this composition, and have used it twice before in recent paintings: first as the central panel of a triptych and then again in Popcorn, a large painting on the theme of a movie lobby. 

Lola
triptych, 20” x 11”, 20” x 18”, 20” x 11”     oil on linen     2005     

Popcorn

40" x 50"     oil on linen     2008

Private Collection, Florida

This couple will also play a significant part in my next large painting; a composition involving people watching a movie - a companion to Popcorn. I'm presently still in the drawing and composing stage, but hope to have it on the easel soon. Below is a work study, done two days ago; I'm getting close to resolving the composition, but am not quite there yet.

work study

18" x 29 1/4"     pencil on paper     2014
Private collection, New York

Paintings from 2008

Popcorn

40" x 50"     oil on linen     2008

Private Collection, Florida

Chips and Salsa

11" x 14"    oil on linen     2008

Private Collection, Vermont

Respectful Man

9" x 7"     oil on linen     2008

Private Collection, New York

Movie Lobby

Movie Lobby

15" x 15"    oil on linen    2005

Private Collection, New Hampshire