In the summer of 2009, I painted the Guggenheim on a 30″X30″ canvas and practically sold it on the street. In 2010, I longed to paint the Gugg once more… but it felt wrong. Opportunistic.

Unless? I wondered… if I made a more serious commitment. And with that, I decided to paint a 30″X30″ Guggenheim, each summer, for 20 years. Today, I’m proud to share Guggenheim #8 — “The Neon Guggenheim”. Fittingly, this painting will debut at The National Arts Club in November, for the Accessible Art Fair.

MH the Verb sent me “Good Morning”, and, well, I couldn’t cut a single beat… so this video is long, strong and down to put the acrylic on. From MH, “‘Good Morning‘ perfectly exemplifies the collaborative style ArtHouse95 is all about.  I produced the track featuring live bass from engineer, Dave Humes and layered drums. It’s pure Hip Hop… digging crates for the perfect sample, chopping the jazzy groove, and linking with two of Philadelphia’s most lyrical emcees – Drusef and Mic Stew. We wrote the song during a cloudy studio session a couple years ago while reflecting on our daily grind and ambition as artists. The homie, Kuf Knotz even had to make a guest appearance at the end.  Overall, when the beat drops after the intro, you can feel the energy build… I just can’t wait for people to hear what comes next.

Enjoy… and do read on for an unusual painting recap.

This is the first Guggenheim in my 20-year-series wherein at least one portion of the work wasn’t painted in front of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece. So, to get creative… this work began in the town square of Jackson, Wyoming…

A fine day painting and filming in cowboy country… underpainting nearly completed.

Day two went down in ‘The Square’… it was windy, but I didn’t mind, as Glenn snagged us some burgers from Local. Yes, I realize, these statements are unrelated.

Moving on to venue #2… I decided to spend two days painting in The Art Association while my show, Painting Light, was still on display. You’ll notice I began laying out the tubes, darkened the foreground and set the stage for high drama.

The cloudy sky made sense at first, but I would later bury it like so many underpaintings… only to one day, perhaps, be re-discovered via infrared technology. Also, the foreground got lit.

And now, the long process of darkening the Gugg itself… shade, after shade, after shade. Not the dissing kind.

Slight tonal shifts… I wanted hand-mixed payne’s grey to become pure orange by the neon tubes.

We had the great fortune of hosting our dear friends from New York for a week or so… my studio became a bedroom, and our bedroom became my studio. It was nice painting on the second floor, listening to a gaggle of lovely children playing in the pool below. Here, the tubes are starting to make sense… I detailed some windows and worked in some oranges around the canvas.

When you get to this stage of a painting, mistakes are the finest way to discover the appropriate direction. Here, I felt the blues on the turret and the rotunda weren’t cutting the mustard… a new plan was devised.

Ah… yes… the turret received a red zig-zag treatment (based on the actual pattern, which is difficult to read unless you really look at the building). The reflective light on the underside of the Gugg was punched up to appropriate effect, and it was down to the final details. You’ll notice my signature… when I go more elaborate in that department, it takes a while, so I work it alongside tones found organically in the work.

And a quick, moderate quality iPhone snap of Mindscape Guggenheim and The Neon Guggenheim, side-by-side. In the year between the works, we moved to Victor, Idaho… I had a solo show, we lived in Minnesota and Wyoming… and, friend, there’s more I will share soon.

And here is The Neon Guggenheim, joining my 20-year series. Don’t miss The Accessible Art Fair this November – Neon Gugg will be there.

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