Downtown - New Vancouver Cityscape Off Easel

My latest cityscape is finished just in time to coincide with World Art Day and a well-deserved vacation to the interior. (Beer, beach, BBQ, grape, anyone?)

Downtown (admitedly not my most inspired title) measures 20 x 16" and features a street view of downtown Vancouver and a various assortment of office towers and apartment buildings. While not enamoured with the actual act of painting straight lines and managing realistic perspectives, I admit to taking comfort in the act of condensing city sprawl of the into repeating patterns of windows, light and shadow. (Is there an irony inherent in being a realist artist who constantly attempts to remake their own reality, or is that actually the point?)

Perhaps surprisingly the part of the painting that I find most satisfying is the orange crack of light in the upper lefthand quarter. Perhaps too bright and perhaps too separate, it is the singular part of the painting to which I have any emotional attachment. If I lived in the painting (and in some ways I might) then this is my room.

It's been a busy week of proposal writing and plans for new work (watch for Postcards from Dystopia in London, December 2009 when Kate participates in a group show across the pond) and I'm ready for some serious R&R with my sister and the boys on the beach.

"There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in." ~Leonard Cohen

Paintings in Progress - Last Meal: Darrell Grayson

Having recently begun Last Meal: Darrell Grayson, the next painting in my death penalty series, I thought it would be interesting (if to no one but myself) to record the progress of the piece from beginning to end. In some ways I find this difficult, as I like to get past the awkward first stages of a painting as quickly as possible to the meaty details of piece.

The beginning of a painting is rarely pretty, but one has to start somewhere. All of my last meal paintings begin with a yellow ochre ground (background) that is obvious in the early stages of the painting and helps unify the tones as the work progresses. The ground may be applied a few weeks or months ahead of painting as I like to prep a few canvases at a time (it's good busy work when inspiration fails.)

The dark/shaded areas get painted before any blocks of colour, finally finishing with the brightest parts of the composition. The technique of painting dark to light is classic in approach; the theory being that blending light into dark (as opposed to dark into light) avoids muddying the colours.

After the first session, the shapes are vaguely defined and the edges soft; there's still some opportunity to rework the initial composition, but I consciously attempt to resolve all proportions and relationships the first time through.


By the end of the third painting session, the ground is almost completely covered, the darks are becoming darker, the brights lighter (admittedly difficult to tell from the glare in the photograph) and contrast is increasing throughout the piece. Details begin to emerge and structural brush strokes have begun to assert themselves in the brighter areas of the painting, although my preference is to maintain as flat a surface as possible, especially in the early stages. To advance the perception of depth, the darkest areas are scrubbed as opposed to brushed; this lends these areas the appearance of receding, as the brushed lighter areas push themselves forward.

By the end of my fifth date with a painting (at least of this modest size - 14 x 18") the objects have begun to 'turn in space' and the contrast between dark and light has appreciably deepened. At this stage I am just beginning to make hard decisions as to which transitions of shade/colour will be hard and which will be soft, often dependent on the light and specific object depicted. Slight imperfections in shape are now detectable and the objects are beginning to take on a realistic appearance as they slightly overlap the background.

Stay tuned for the next stages, when I promise to photograph the work more faithfully and will provide some close ups of the details.

For more information about Darrel Grayson and this painting, please see my blog post Last Meal Painting Finally on Easel. For information about Darrell Grayson's case and execution, please visit this article on the Innocence Project Blog. To view my complete series of death penalty artwork, check out the Last Meals page on my website.

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