Painting Process
The image that I imagined was a bear standing in a dark alley with a single overhead lamp illuminating it. The bear would be looking to the right -- off the picture plane, What was the bear looking at? But when I did that, it just didn't work. I repainted the eyes. The bear looking at the viewer was much more compelling. It was from this painting that I started to have all my bears looking directly at the viewer.
I was trying to think of a name for the store. Something universal. I thought of numbers. I loved the race scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventures (one of my favorite movies) and Pee Wee was number Zero. It sounded better repeated so thats where that name came from. Mannequins of course are so mysterious and have their own presence. I also never got over the Twilight Zone where Anne Francis was the mannequin.
I love old cars. This is a '57 Chevy Bel Air. I actually don't know much about old cars. I just like the way they look. They had such style back in the 50's.
I intentionally left the sidewalk out of perspective and let it run down like a stream. OK, I do have a problem doing perspective and I know I need to do it correctly to convey the scene I want. However a little leeway in the conventional is always tempting and I like to not follow the rules.
The roses were one of the last things I painted. I thought there needed to be something else, another clue? I chose the iconic rose. There is the rose in Beauty and the Beast, "a rose is a rose", Katherine Hepburn's character's name was Rose in the African Queen and the dearest one to my heart is Sleeping Beauty who the fairies named Briar Rose. I named my daughter Rose for all those reasons.
I had a hard time painting the bears feet. You know, bear's feet always looks wrong when they are standing up. So I painted a cardboard box that was supposed to be in front of the bear's foot, however it looks like it is ON the bear's foot. lol.
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**Framed work does not include glass or plexiglass. Framed prints come with an acrylic face - looks like a thin clear sheet. It looks good though and the art prints are really very nice. Looks almost like an original! I was impressed!
