Introduction & Intent
"You're painting a masterpiece. Make sure to hide the brushstrokes."
Betty quotes her mother when chatting with Francine about the Helen Bishop supermarket incident during Season 1 in Mad Men TV series.
In an article on writing from Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men, he makes that point that writers often pretend there's little work involved in creating their final piece, but that the process is slow, full of visions and revisions, false starts, painful changes.
Similarly, in other forms of art creation, the final product doesn't represent the iterative process where artist brainstorms, sketch, construct and revise. I started documenting more of my painting progress, hoping to "unhide the brushstrokes".
Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" was one of my favorite movies and I admire its color, plot and quirkiness of the characters. During quarantine this year in March I wanted to recreate the movie poster in oil paint. I wasn't rushing to finish the painting; instead, I wanted to be actively aware of the process of the painting of layers, coloring, refining details. I also want to be aware of how painting make me feel emotionally during quarantine. The painting took 7 weeks from initial sketching, to applying background color, painting out each window, then layering details of shadows at the end.
There are a few take aways from this iterative process, highlights being:
1. Be patient to layer contrast color on top of each other
2. No matter how bad it looks at first, as artist we can always fix the details and reconstruct without starting from the start. It provides more layers and details.
3. Dedicating a few hours every night at the end of the day to painting help me feel calm and release my stress
The movie poster for "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
The Painting - "Grand Budapest Hotel"
Footage of the last touch up