Provo Gallery Stroll This Friday

Painting by my student Hilary Onyon- Acrylic

I'm excited to join my students this Friday as we unveil our paintings during the Provo Gallery stroll. As I mentioned previously here, my Illustration 4 class at BYU has been creating paintings for a Provo Tabernacle themed show. All the paintings will be available or sale, so come have a snack, say "Hi" and support the artists.

Painting by Chase Jensen

Painting by Colt Bowden

I'm really pleased with the results of all the students efforts and wanted to give a sneak peek and a shout out to everyone to join us this Friday night from 6:00- 9:00 pm.  Here are a few of the standout pieces (at least the ones I that were finished last week when I shot photos).

Painting by Mellisa Crowton

Our show will be featured at Window Box Gallery which is located at 62 West Center Street in Provo, Utah. If you go, be aware that the Center Street freeway exits from I-15 are closed due to reconstruction. Follow the appropriate detours and you will get there just fine.

See my finished painting here:

Provo Tabernacle-Finished Version

I finished up my Provo Tabernacle painting last week in preparation for the upcoming show my class has set up at the Window Box Gallery next weekend. As you can see from the preliminary study below, there were a lot of refinements that took place. I think the most glaring issue I had to deal with was the vertical lines. As I studied my progress, I realized that some of the walls canted to the east rather glaringly. I also was struggling with how to depict the rather rigid structure of the scaffolding. 

I decided to try a trick that I learned from painter friend Rob Adamson which involved using metal straightedges to get straight lines. I dug my eight inch and three inch drywall knives out of the shed and put them to work. By resting the straight edge on my painting and making a clean stroke, I found I could keep lines parallel, consistent and surprise, straight. It's also important to keep the edge clean after every stroke to prevent unintended transfer of paint to other areas of the work. This made a big difference and It is something I plan to continue using when I need a crisp line while painting.

The show including this painting and all the other wonderful work created by my students will be at the Window Box Gallery during December. Opening social will be  during the Friday Night Gallery Stroll, December 2, 2011 from 6;00 pm to 9:00 pm.