I've worked on a group of murals commuting back and forth from Savannah to Hilton Head in the months from August to November of 2011. I was inspired by the Hudson River Landscape Painters and used my own photo references as well as photo reproductions from the masterful paintings of artists like Asher B. Durand and Thomas Cole. The process was an experience in learning framing devices, lighting, and coloring effects. I've come to a new appreciation for the sublime, the picturesque, and the complex emotions that 19th century landscape painters dealt with in reaction to their sprouting industrial era.
These Murals where commissioned by Brett Guimarine, an entrepreneur who is starting up a restaurant bar and game room next to his 5 star Italian restaurant in Hilton Head. He told me he wanted murals which will allow his customers to escape their worry’s. It was a perfect opportunity for me to learn from the Romantic Era landscape painters whose artworks provided the over worked industrial world with an escape into the picturesque.
Addendum (8/27/2014): The restaurant bar and game-room went bankrupt, closed down, and the building is currently in a state of disuse.
 |
| Durand's Old Oak, Acrylic on sheet-rock, 16 X 50ft, 2011 |
 |
| detail: Durand's Old Oak, Acrylic on sheet-rock, 16 X 50ft, 2011 |
 |
| Ruins, acrylic on sheet-rock,16 x 80 ft, 2011 |
 |
| Palm, Acrylic on sheetrock, 16 x 30 ft, 2011 |
 |
| cyprus palm oak, acrylic on sheetrock, 16 x 25 ft, 2011 |
 |
| Cyprus, Palm, Oak, acrylic on sheetrock, 18 x 65 ft. 2011 |
 |
| detail |
 |
| detail |
Process:
 |
| This is a detail of an under painting. you can see that I use the white of the wall by painting with washes of burnt sienna. I refrain from mixing in white unless the washes dry before I can manipulate them to my intention. |
 |
| This is the under painting in burnt sienna with some ultramarine blue for the sky and water. |
 |
| Here I have refined the under painting and made significant compositional changes. I have applied watered down layers of ivory black to bring more dimension into the mural. |
| for the sake of experimentation, I have sketched out the outer framing elements of the composition with thick charcoal sticks. my fingers were blistered and sometimes bleeding by the end of a long day due to rubbing in the charcoal to the wall. |
After completion of these murals, I had the privilege to see the traveling exhibition of the Hudson River Landscape painters in the Columbia Museum of Art. I stood in front of a painting by Asher B Durand, The Solitary Oak Tree for who knows how long, in absolute admiration. I saw works by Thomas Cole, Fredrick Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, and more. Rest assured, I have a new series of paintings coming up in reaction to Nature and the Grand American Vision, an astounding traveling exhibition.
