About the Painting: “Beach Motel”
This was the first painting that became part of my current series “Road/Signs”. The actual Beach Motel was located in Sunset Beach, California. It has since been torn down and is now a condo complex.
I have always been a fan of the photorealists–Robert Cottingham, Chuck Close, and Davis Cone–and wanted to create a body of work that was based on photorealism. While driving around the country showing my work at that time I had been taking reference photos of various diners, theaters, and old neon motel signs. My goal was to document these dying relics of the American roadscape. The first painting, “Beach Motel” was really just a work that I had planned on as an experiment, basically a work just for myself. My whole series of road paintings had not yet been refined but I had to start somewhere, and I ended up with a subject that was in my own backyard.
Doing a new series always involves some trepidation. A series in progress is always refined and the process and direction constantly changing. Although I had other images to start with, I was drawn to the Beach Motel because it was simplistic, yet at the same time involved learning new ways to create a painting. Most of the airbrush work I had done up to that point did not involve masking and planning, it was just free-form painting. Beach Motel needed masks, layers, and precision I had not used up to that point.
The new piece was noticed right away by my collectors and visitors to the studio with many enjoying my new direction. As a full-time artist I have to notice what has potential to sell (Many artists hate the “S” word…more on that topic at another time). I was off to a good start.