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This series began with Napoleon & Josephine, which was inspired by my newfound interest in the entertainment industry. Having moved to Los Angeles from Colorado in 2006, many of my new friends worked in the film industry. When I expressed an interest in doing a painting about a movie, they volunteered to sit for the painting.
In looking for a subject for the painting, I remembered seeing The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David in The Louvre in 1961. It is remarkable for its scale and scope: 20 feet by 30 feet, with a cast of over 200 people. I chose to paint the Hollywood B movie version, with a cast of 20 people. The moment captured in the painting is as if the viewer had walked onto the set during a rehearsal and knocked over a chair. Many, but not all cast members, turned to stare at the intruder. In contrast to David's The Coronation, where the focal point is Napoleon, I wanted more interaction between the viewer and the painting.
Upon completion of Napoleon & Josephine, I realized that I wanted to paint more big paintings; 8 feet by 16 feet makes a nice blank canvas to start with. The second painting is a circus sideshow, which allowed me to continue with an entertainment theme, reusing many of the same cast members from Napoleon & Josephine. The posters in the background of Circus Dada allowed me to introduce some of my nude drawings. With Circus Dada, I had more freedom with the composition than in Napoleon, where I had used David's composition. I have always been a fan of the Dada movement. To the best of my knowledge, there never was a circus Dada; there should have been.
After painting two large paintings, I decided it was a series. In keeping with an entertainment focus, I chose a ballet for the next painting. I referenced Michelangelo's The Last Judgement for the backdrop. Like Michelangelo, I used the theme of The Last Judgement as an excuse to include 20 nudes. The subject of my imaginary ballet is La Vie (Life). The scene portrayed in The Ballet is the finale. In creating the painting, I painted everything on the stage and above first. The orchestra and audience came last; they are almost two separate paintings.
For the fourth painting, I returned to the film industry for subject matter. Remembering a visit to the Warner Brothers Studios and seeing their prop room, I decided to create a prop room of my own. My visual sources were Rembrandt's The Night Watch and Picasso's Guernica, which are both predominantly dark paintings. Guernica is literally a black and white painting; for the first three months, so was my Nightwatch. While I liked the film noir affinity of a black and white composition, I eventually, I decided it needed some color references to tie in with the other three paintings in the series. For example, the red scaffolding, which appears in all four paintings as a common element. The scene of Nightwatch is a prop room in the middle of the night.
The above four paintings took 6 years to complete. Wether there are more paintings in this series, only time will tell.
Napoleon & Josephine
oil on canvas
96" x 192"
2009
$25,000
Circus Dada
oil on canvas
96" x 192"
2011
$25,000
The Ballet
oil on canvas
96" x 192"
2012
$25,000
Nightwatch
oil on canvas
96" x 192"
2013
$25,000