I’ve wanted to paint The Dude for years… literally. Though, somehow, the timing never seemed right… until now. I’m on a streak of guilty pleasure canvases, and I don’t want the good times to end. Jeff Bridges and the Coen Brothers created a masterpiece and all-time cult classic with The Big Lebowski. And, let’s be honest, he has been painted by at least seven hundred thousand other artists… but to worry about that would be very un-Dude, and as an ordained Dudeist Minister, I gotta keep my mind, you know, limber.

As for the source image…

Ever the courteous Dude, he asks to “do a J” before lighting up… this shot felt very Dudelike. The moment when The Big Lebowski is in seclusion, The Dude reads the ransom letter in his mind… but we can hear him. Eventually, he reconnects with Big in real time and says, “bummer, that’s a bummer man”. This is my favorite scene, and  hence, the one I chose to paint it.

The track is a live performance of a selection from the piece “Truth and Dreams” by Kate Pittman. It features Josh D. Reed on trumpet and Ben Thomas on bass.

This is a complicated painting, lots of ins and outs. The words speak for themselves… Paraquat was a stroke of genius, Hungus was his nemesis, and Medina Sod was the real company on The Dude’s bowling shirt during (spoiler alert for a 1998 film right here) Donny’s funeral. An old pin-up image of a woman bowling with her knickers down, Julianne Moore, Credence riding a motorcycle, Philip Seymour Hoffman (RIP), a snippet of the Texa Tonka Lanes sign, the Beatles “I Am The Walrus” single, live performance art (a reference to, but not of, Maude’s character inspiration: Carolee Schneemann), the absolutely fantastic Stanton Lanes in Wilkes Barre, and Duder on the flat screen in our old apartment on East 20th Street while I was packing us up to go nomadic — Coraline and Vega were born there.

Orange you glad to see me, background?

Fully warm, fully underpainted. The only negative space in the face collage will eventually showcase Dude’s eyes, and J.

I’m a shadows-first type of portrait painter.

Two rounds of tones… and beginning to discover some dimensional acuity. This was one of those paintings that came together seamlessly… a Great White Buffalo of sorts, the likes of which come around one in every dozen or so canvases. It is, thus, close to my heart.

Hard core, staunch oranges… I wanted the viewer to feel the fire in the Big Lebowski’s wing of seclusion on the Dude’s face.

Right about here is where I am thinking to myself, OK, this thing is, like, real.

Painted the background live on Periscope with my neighbor Luke there to keep me company. It was a damn fine evening.

Here’s where the biggest move was made… the dramatic orange shadow on the left side of his face. This really brought the canvas together… and soon, this painting will bring someone’s room together for some clams, or bones, or whatever you call them.

It’s The Dude, man.

Get

Closer.

Dude

And now…

So you know, Borbay is an ordained Dudeist Minister, man… and is, like, available for functions.