The last days of summer
I’ve made good progress recently, even though it seems like I’ll never get this done. Someone asked me how much longer it will take, and I couldn’t answer. Most oil paintings take me 30-50 hours total, but that’s for an average image size of 22″ X 28″. I just hope I finish this by the end of the year, since I titled it “Apotheosis 2009″! Plus I’d love to do one of these every year, if I can stand to have my studio eternally monopolized by such a big painting. Maybe it’s time to dream up a bigger studio!
I started painting names into the background, and it just didn’t look right. Then I remembered an image I saw in the American History Museum in Washington D.C. this summer, and suddenly I knew exactly how I want to incorporate the names. I want to paint them into shapes, kind of like this image by Armand Monjo (I can see them etched like calligraphy into the angel wings, or the cat tails, etc.):
