Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Mural for Peter Pan




Impossible to describe the rush I feel when facing a 10 by 20 foot white wall that's just waiting for color. When you paint this big you paint with your whole body. It's an amazing feeling - exciting yet peaceful at the same time. My only regret was that I had only 2 days for this - I could have painted like this, all day, every day, for a very long time....

Details from the finished mural (sketch in an earlier post) for the play Peter Pan by the New Acting Company, NYC.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Girl Who Was Loved By The Night


I painted this a number of years ago. It's part of a series of figurative paintings done with gouache on paper...it's one of my favorite paintings.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Scenic Painting


Just back from a production meeting for the play Peter Pan, where I presented my design for a painting that's to cover the back wall of the stage, providing a theatrical backdrop for much of the play. Thankfully the director loved it, though I may enhance some of the colors, and he wants an Indian camp added to the forest...there are always changes to be made.



I love doing scenic work. Since so much of my work is now digital, I rarely get a chance to do 'old school' style painting like this - with brushes and paints, and all the mess and unpredictability that goes with it.



My watercolor sketch for this mural is deliberately light on detail - scenic backdrops don't need detail, because the audience is far back and won't see it...this type of work is more 'atmospheric' in nature...it's actually a great contrast to my digital work for the publishing world, which is clean, tight, and carefully planned down to the the smallest details....and involves sitting for hours in front of a computer screen.


Painting a 10 by 20 wall is an entirely different experience - I might make the barest sketch on the wall; just enough to map out basic areas, but after that it's all about laying down paint - big, broad strokes that you put your whole body into - you're jumping up and down on scaffolding, running back to look at it from far away, then back to the wall again-I tend to work pretty fast, so it's exhilirating, a real workout. And very meditative - when you lay down real paint, there's no going back...you have to be completely into the image...it's everything - the colors, the mess, the paint-spattered clothes - the total exhaustion you feel when it's finally finished...there's nothing like it.