Schwinn Bicyclery
12 x 12 inches
acrylic on canvas
SOLD
Well - I'm going to call this one done. Hopefully the light will be a little better tomorrow so I can get a better picture. Very gray and dim inside today!
This was a big painting for me these days - and I learned a lot from it.
First of all, I am totally NOT set up to work well this size! I really think that 8 x 10 is as big as I can go comfortably with my current set up. 12 x 12 was really a struggle (though I am currently doing another one that size). And to make matters worse, one of the lights in my corner of
my kids' playroom my studio has stopped working altogether, so I really had to improvise some lighting. I can get away with my Ott daylight lamp for small work, but it didn't work too well for this size.
I also learned that working larger is so much more than just scaling up what I would have done on a smaller piece. I have already painted a similar painting as a 6 x 6 piece. I had worked out the composition, colors, etc. at that size and figured it would be easy to then go larger. But the larger piece had all its own set of issues, so it was almost like starting from scratch. The challenge really pushed me out of my comfort zone.
Anyhow, this painting is of the HR Sawyer Schwinn Bicyclery in Haverhill, Massachusetts. I found out the company is over 100 years old - one of the oldest bicycle shops in America! How cool is that? I loved the way the shapes of the letters, the shadows and the building all came together as a composition. And I think the word "Bicyclery" is pretty neat, too ;-)
I am entering this painting in an upcoming juried exhibition, so we will see how it goes.....
