Marquis I Painting

An abandoned theater in Downtown Detroit sits quietly in the warm sunshine. This view is almost straight up through the marquis at the theater's intricate facade. Detroit had many beautiful but abandoned buildings at the time this was painted. It is a symbol of an era of pride gone by. Several passions drive me in making this piece and others like it. I've always been inspired by the Photo Realist movement, although I do not go to the extreme of using airbrush or projection. I love the freshness and look of watercolor on paper, therefore I include what I call "happy accidents" such as color or water bursts along edges and corners. My goal is to portray man made objects, particularly buildings, in their natural state of decay. Texture is important in these works and is shown through detail of the natural break-down of materials such as rusting metal and peeling paint on buildings and signage. Through this I portray a sort of melancholy of nostalgia, a time before, and quiet celebration of subjects such as Americana and pop culture. I also put a focus on structure and geometric shape. As to the materials, this is painted on 200lb handmade paper called "Indian Village". It has a natural deckle edge on the original which can be framed to show or put under a matte. I paint all the way to the edges, so the work has slight holes I repair all the way around. I personally show the original work floated in a shadowbox frame so I can see the deckle edge and all (the print version does not have the deckle edge). I look to use high quality light-fast watercolor tube paint. Watercolor can be tricky. To build up this kind of color, many layers are painted in flat washes piled on top of each other, sometimes even 20 layers are required, while some areas are reserved for the white paper to show through.

Painting:Watercolor on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:30 W x 22 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.