the very large triptych, part 5 ~ painting the studies

I need to go! I apologized to my hosts. The sky is going to be incredible — I HAVE to photograph it!

That was Sunday, July 2nd, and I couldn’t believe I was bowing out early from a fun party filled with old friends I’d not seen in a long time. But the sky was calling!

I quickly made my exit, left town and rushed out to RAS’ place in Las Campañas, only to find their driveway filled with cars. I knew RAS was in Santa Fe this week, but hadn’t realized they were having a party this evening. They had assured me all along, “Come out whenever you want — you don’t need to alert us before hand!” Yet this evening I hesitated. I didn’t want to crash their party. But DAMN! The sky was incredible!
Laughter and music emanated from inside. I knocked on the door, waited a few minutes, then sheepishly let myself in.

Three hours later, with a belly full of paella and key lime pie and my head spinning with festivity, I was back home in my pajamas. As I stared into the computer screen, my camera downloaded a near endless stream of photos of the evening’s radiant sky.

After that, I returned to RAS’ roof just once more: to capture coral sunrise clouds over the Sangre de Cristos and billowy white mid-morning clouds over the Jemez.

Then I was done: I had all the photos I needed.

Now came the hard part: Culling hundreds of photos to a dozen of the very best.
After many hours sitting at my computer staring into the screen this, too, was done.
I was now ready to begin the oil studies.

In June I had begun the preparation of the study panels. Were the dimensions of the Very Large Triptych (and in turn the studies) more traditional in scale, I would have used Ampersand panels. However since the dimensions were unusual, I had to make my own panels. I chose birch plywood because it is strong, durable and smooth — nothing like your typical plywood. Since it’s raw wood though, it requires some treatment before painting: First a couple of layers of acrylic medium to seal the wood, followed by several layers of gesso to create a smooth white ground. By the time I made my final excursion to the roof in mid-July, the panels were ready.

But before I began the studies, I wanted to do a couple of test studies — “study studies,” if you will.

Test #1: See how the rooftop view translates in oil. I bought a sweet little linen-covered panel and tested painting in oil a scene from one of my first excursions out there:

Test #2: See what it feels like to paint oil on my new birch plywood panels. I treated a small scrap panel with gel medium and gesso and knocked out a quick little painting of an early view:

Satisfied with my tests, I was ready to dive into the official oil studies. Proportionate to the overall Very Large Triptych, each measured 11″ x 40.” I began with an April sunset, and continued through spring into summer, wrapping up with mid-July.

All in all I painted seven studies:

On August 31 I brought the panels out to RAS’ Las Campañas home. I lined them up in the entry way, and we slowly walked the length of the hallway, considering each study.

After some discussion, RAS narrowed it down to two, and finally down to one — The One I would transform into the Very Large Triptych.

Which one would you choose?

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This is part five of a several part series:

the very large triptych, part one ~ the request
the very large triptych, part two ~ the proposal
the very large triptych, part three ~ discovering the landscape
the very large triptych, part four ~ experiencing sky
the very large triptych, part five ~ painting the studies **
the very large triptych, part six ~ new studio & first strokes
the very large triptych, part seven ~ the big reveal
the very large triptych, part eight ~ delivery & installation

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