Demo two: Couples retreat (1/6)

It is always a fun challenge to paint a large painting. There are things that happen (or don't happen) in a large painting that you won't encounter when doing something "normal". This canvas is six by eight feet. Just stretching the thing is a challenge. But it is so rewarding.

I've toned my canvas with burnt umber and some sap green. I want to use a limited pallet on this painting, so the color harmony or balance is easier to maintain from one side to the other. Since I cannot work on both sides at the same time, this is important.

Beginning with paint drawing, you can see the first stages of laying out where everything will go. I did a small 16x20 painting as a study, and have it near by to look at for reference points and placement. This "drawing" with paint will take about an hour or two on this size canvas. The studio I'm working in is 27 feet wide, and I walk back about every five minutes to see how things are going.

Demo two: Couples retreat (2/6)

Once I have everything where it belongs, I chose to start on the animal subject. Establishing the critter sets the stage for how much detail I'll do on the rest of the painting. Starting here in the center of the painting, also helps me concentrate on the focal area of the piece. I'll put more energy and time in the middle third of the painting, than the rest of it. This helps the viewer "know" what it is you want them to see.

Demo two: Couples retreat (3/6)

I'm simply covering ground. Using two palettes is really helping me. I have one on a table beside me with large piles of paint and a few premixed colors that I'm using. On my hand held palette I have my regular tube colors and some of the mixed color piles. This way I can grab large quantities of paint from large piles of color and lay it on thick.... a must for working this large on fairly rough canvas. I used two large tubes of white paint, and at least one small tube of the other colors: Cad Yellow, Orange, Red, Aliz, Sap Green, Burnt Umber, and Ivory Black. I used no blue in this picture.

Demo two: Couples retreat (4/6)

More of the same. This is about three or four days into it. At the beginning of each day, I will mix some color to match what I was doing the previous day, so I have some continuity as I move across the painting. I don't want to get to one side and have a different color green in the water, or a different color light on the rocks.

Demo two: Couples retreat (5/6)

Painting this painting was such a treat. I rented a space at the local art league, a huge 27 x 75 foot room, turned on some Josh Grobin music, and sang along while I threw the paint on. Seven days in a row, about ten hours a day... it was no labor, rather pure joy. My kids would come up and visit me (our home is three blocks away) and would sit and do homework or read. Sometimes they would critique. There ideas are usually great, too. Two heads are better than one, I'd tell them. They would beam.

I wonder where those thoughts would lead them, where their life would lead, what they would be like when they were men. My influence in their lives is such a bigger work of art than any thing I ever do on canvas. I hope it will be a beautiful work.

Demo two: Couples retreat (6/6)

The finished painting.