the BIG picture Part 1

I have begun a new project.  Millie Doud is putting together at the Richardson Gallery:  the big picture, the summer show at the Richardson Gallery on the Conway campus of Horry-Georgetown Technical College.  She asked me a while ago if I would like to participate and I just love painting large.  I enjoy doing murals and large canvases.  Most shows I enter have size limits so I do not get to do non-mural large works too often.  I went through many ideas and concepts and tried to come up with a way that will let me create a BIG picture that will fit in my studio, fit in my car and fit in the gallery.  I will document the process and hope you enjoy the ride.


For size and convenience I decided to make my entry out of four 36x24 canvases which will hang in a rectangle giving the final size 72 x 48 - that's big.  The individual canvases will be a size I can work with and transport in my car.  I want them to hang together but at the same time they can also be treated as individual pieces.


I swoon when I walk through tropical gardens.  Visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Florida gives me a chance to do so on a regular basis.  I have tons of photos I have taken especially at the American Orchid Society gardens (although they are now moving closer to Miami).   So I dug through my photos and came up with some of my favorites and put together a scene of a tropical garden.  It took many sketches and concepts to come up with a plan that unites the 4 canvases but will allow each to stand alone.


I ordered the canvases and today I put a base coat of yellow on each.  I like to use a base coat to unite all four.  It will give a good base to the canvas and I chose yellow to give a glow of sunlight behind the images.  Not much will show through, but if I do leave a gap in the paint, yellow will appear and not the white of the canvas.  I like to do a base of yellow on all of my landscapes just for that reason.


Once they dry,  I will use chalk and blue tape to lay out the image.  Then I will put in a background.  Once that's done I can work on one canvas at a time.