The 136th Black and White Exhibit

"24 Hour Cafe", 11x14 oil on panel

" Rain in the City" 8x10 oil on panel

     I have been mentioning the Black and White Exhibit at the Salmagundi Club and have been providing the link www.salmagundi.org so that you can see the show online, however, the images have not yet been posted. You can read the history of the show and see photos of the intensive renovation that has been holding up the works.  This is the Salmagundi Club's most historic show and is usually held in the main gallery but due to the renovation it is being held in the smaller Lower Gallery this year.

     I painted the top painting in December and the lower the first week of January. I chose a small format because I needed to be able to fit both in one of my AirFloat Strong Boxes since my second box would be used to ship a larger painting for the Annual Exhibit which is to be the grand reopening of the Main Gallery. Like virtually every construction project I have been involved in the work has been delayed. Those of us with paintings selected for The Annual have already shipped our paintings so the show can be hung just as soon as work is completed. We still don't have a date :-(

      I want to do more paintings like these. The rule for this show was strictly black and white with
no other color but I can envision some future cityscapes that will be black and white with subtle additions of color. I like the looseness of these paintings and I found that it was easy to work quickly while just making value decisions. By contrast the Pennsylvania Avenue painting below demands more decision making.

       I still don't have a title. I also don't have a decent photo for you. This was taken with my iPad camera as the light was fading. I continued working a little longer under studio lights and then sat back to assess the progress. I hate this stage when I am just getting paint on the panel but I am far enough along to recognize adjustments I need to make. For instance, after taking this photo I scraped off the blue cafe umbrellas in the foreground because I realized they were too high. Overall I feel I am off to a good start with this one and will post more about my inspiration for it and what I am using for reference in the studio. Tomorrow should be another sunny day so maybe I will have a better photo when I do my next post.