Lobby Installation at 600 W. Van Buren, Chicago
Summary
4 panels each sized 58" x 58" will be installed in the lobby of 600 W. Van Buren, Chicago. Spanning the 4 panels will be a painting of the very same building where the lobby resides.
The building is the James T. Igoe Mercantile Building. It was built in 1922 by Alfred Alschuler, a contemporary of Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan.
Collection: Northwest Architectural Archives
(American Terra Cotta Company Photographs)
The building has two lobbies. The panels are going in the lobby on the Van Buren side.
I've been doing watercolor mockups to establish the color palette. The colors are Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, and Van Dyke Brown. Those four colors will be the foundation of the painting.
The panels are made from masonite and framed with white pine and various recycled wood parts. They are just under 6 feet square and just over an inch thick. They will hang flush to the wall. The walls are marble and pale yellow.
To prepare the panels I first fill in all the gaps and holes with a spackle type stuff. It dries and I sand it. down. Then I gesso the surface. Gesso is a primer that artists use to prepare a surface like canvas or wood to accept oil paint. Usually you apply 2 coats. I've applied 4 so far in an attempt to have a smooth surface where you can't see the seams underneath.
There is a lot of prep work that happens before I begin painting the final version. Besides prepping the panels, I do color studies in watercolor and print out a lot of reference shots to make sure I get the details right. The color squares are references so I can keep the color the the same across the 4 panels.
Below is a study I'm doing on canvas. It's been helpful to paint this before painting the final. It's like a practice run. A lot of problems get worked out ahead of time.
Work begins on the first two panels.
The studio at night.
