PAINTING LARGE

Aspen Light, 60 x 48 oil 

In the basement, there are two large canvases, that I bought in a crazy moment of wishing to paint larger.  After my summer of plein air painting, I have one image that I would like to paint really big.

My studio is in what the builders designed as a bedroom.  It has a closet, useful for storing stuff, and normal bedroom height ceilings.  This means that an easel mast can only go so high, and large paintings, even if they fit on the easel, won't fit in the room.  So this painting will have to be done hanging on the wall.

I wire the back of the canvas, and set up nails at different levels, about 3 inches apart.  This way, I can reach the top of the canvas, or the bottom of the canvas, but not both.  I will have to raise it up and down the nails when I want to reach other parts.  This, of course, means that the painting gets finished bottom to top, instead of my painting all over it.  No worries.  It works this way too.

When the painting is done, I realize that my studio is too small to give me enough room to photograph it.  I wait for a sunny day, sneak outside with my camera and painting, and quickly photograph before it clouds over again.

This is fun.  I think I'll do more of them.