Cityscape

I've started a few small cityscapes in oil and it's going, um, very slowly. The last time I painted in oil was back in 1997 when I painted this. Back then I lived in northern California and had a huge garage to work in so having mineral spirits and turpentine around wasn't a big deal. Incidentally the Mask piece was painted as a thank you gift to the director of the independent film Trans. Through a close friend I was allowed to hang out while the film was being shot in Fort Meyers, FL. That was probably the greatest creative experience I've ever had and still draw on lessons learned while witnessing an independent film being created.

Anyway, I've been wanting to get back into working in oil and now have finally found the time. I live close to downtown Saint Louis and will take many walks wandering around the city looking at all the buildings. A few weeks ago I shot a number of photos of cluster of buildings and decided to use those as models for the small oils I'd like to start. The images of all these buildings stuck on top of each other has always been appealing. They almost become abstract rectangles, squares and columns all bunched together. So far the result has been a practice in patience. After painting exclusively in acrylic for the last 14 + years I've grown accustom to what works and what doesn't but now all those lessons will have to be learned all over again. Just painting the color blue can be an intoxicating experience. The paint never dries and each stroke creates a new line or texture and then it's gone again and something new appears. I could spend hours just painting a pure color over and over again. I suspect this is going to take some time.

now playing - 3WK