As many of you will be aware, I have my art studio at 1890 Bryant Street in San Francisco - the old Best Foods mayonnaise factory. The building has been a work in progress since I moved in in 2007 with a new floor of studios being built on the roof. The downside of all this has been noise and other inconveniences. The upside, as far as I am concerned, is that I get to wander around the working areas, looking at piles of building materials, holes in walls, and new elevator shafts.
Earlier this year I started to work on some paintings of my favorite spaces in the building. I have just finished a diptych of the loading bays beneath my studio. Below are the stages the piece went through:
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| Architectural plan: Diagonal loading bays in a rectangular building. |
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| Too much to get into one drawing without losing the drama... |
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| ...so I decided to do two different drawings from the same view point. The painting would now be a diptych. |
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| Old posters were applied to two wood panels to create under paintings for the diptych. |
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| I copied the perspective lines onto the panels. |
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| The composition was built with acrylic paint. |
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| The paintings were finished with oil paint. At this point I felt that the diptych was too "busy" with all the perspective lines, but I wanted the panels to stay close to each other. |
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| By adding a Red panel to the side of the larger piece, suggesting the columns on the outside of the building, I provided breathing space between the two panels. Total painting dimensions: 48" x 72". |
Finished! (I think.)
