The neon train continues with this 14″X18″ canvas of Fedora — a West Village staple (now gratuity free).
This painting wasn’t going to happen. I was focused on moving our family from Minnesota to Idaho, when I completed packing five days early. A blank canvas taunts a painter like a blank page tortures the writer — so, I got to work.
I’ve wanted to paint this sign forever… as you can see, my original source image was fairly wack-sauce… it required re-invention.
Kicking things off with the standard two-form, red/orange under-painting.
A blue gradient in the sky… it never changed, the rest of the canvas did.
Banging out the bare essence of this baby… hand-drawn letters, shadows… always lead with the darkness. It was here, this canvas was wrapped and placed in the back of a 40-foot-truck — bound for Idaho.
Anxious to paint, I dug right into the building…
The reverberation of color would make the piece, so I began with a quick application… but it didn’t work on the first go.
So I got all up in there with the green and pink letters… here, I confirmed the glow deserved better… so it was entirely redone.
Now… we have a glow… on the sign, around the letters and on the frame.
As always, the “prestige phase” is time-consuming, but absolutely worth it. With the neon tubes applied, all that remained was the windows and a few chains.
And boom — a neon slice of Manhatta’s West Village. Stand by… many more paintings under way in the Victor studio/gallery.
Find yourself getting serious about this canvas? See if it’s still available.
One comment
Comments are closed.