Backtalk in progress

Here is the painting I started drawing back in July.   The subject is Backtalk, the Smarty Jones colt, raced by Paul Bulmahn’s Goldmark Farm.  The painting shows Backtalk winning the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga in 2009 using track photographer Adam Coglianese’s wonderful finish line photo of the race.  This canvas is 48″ x 66″, while time involved in finishing the painting will take several months; it’s a great time to share the step by step development of a painting.  In addition to the full painting, I anticpate showing close ups of specific areas with each subsequent layer to demonstrate the increased detail and the increased richness of color.

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The painting is finally finished after the better part of 4 months.  The progression of photos shows the development of the whole painting from drawing through the first layer to cover the canvas and through each subsequent layer – 5 layers passing over the entire surface of the painting to get the colors exactly where I wanted them in rich vibrant tones and the details kept refining with each later.  You can back a cake without eggs, you can even take  it of the oven after five minutes instead of the thirty the recipe calls for, however if anyone is going to taste it, then the chef can’t rush it or take short cuts. No matter how much icing you put on a bad cake, it’s still a bad cake. I hope you appreciate that when I paint, perfection is the goal.  While I understand nobody’s perfect and perfection in art is a myth, that’s still no excuse for not trying to achieve it.   I’m very pleased with the Backtalk painting and hopefully sharing it with you each step of the way, has helped you appreciate the process and left you wanting seconds.

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