About 6 months ago, I was asked to do a second exhibit in Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler University which is a massive exhibition space. I jumped at the opportunity, but asked if I could invite some friends to help me fill the space. As I was wondering who to invite, I looked at my art collection and specifically the inspiration wall in my studio which contains 100+ works by a wide variety of artists. I gravitated towards the artists I plein air paint with all the time and then the plein air painters that I have bought from and collected over the years. I took a shot in the dark and invited a bunch of them. To my surprise, 17 of the 18 artists invited said yes and the one that could not participate is currently on a 5 month long plein air painting road trip and logistically just could not make it work.

I currently own a total of 52 original paintings by 16 of the 17 exhibiting artists and the one artist I don’t have a painting from yet is on my short acquisition list. As a painter and an avid art collector, I could not be more thrilled that these artists will be exhibiting in my city. It is an honor to exhibit alongside this group of painters.

The exhibition is at Butler University in the lobby of Clowes Memorial Hall and runs from Tuesday, August 7 to Sunday, October 7. I will be giving a guided tour at the opening reception on Tuesday, August 28 at 6 pm. Mark your calendars, this will not be a show you will want to miss!!

The list of artists includes:

Alison Barry – Southern MA
Jason Skyle Conn – Alameda, CA
Jed Dorsey – Camano Island, WA
Dennis Doyle – Weymouth, MA
Jeremy Duncan – Amador County, CA
Jessica Green – Indianapolis, IN
Danny Griego – San Diego, CA
Mike Hernandez – Los Angelos, CA
Shawn Krueger – Grand Rapids, MI
Aaron Cordell Johnson – Moscow, ID
Kyle Ragsdale – Indianapolis, IN
Tad Retz – Syracuse, NY
Benny Sanders – Indianapolis, IN
Caleb Stolzfus – Philadelphia, PA
Edward Sprafkin – Phoenix, AZ
Stephanie Paige Thomson – Brownsburg, IN
Justin Vining – Indianapolis, IN
Alicia Zanoni – Indianapolis, IN

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Walking through Speedway at around 5:30 am was simultaneously real quiet, but I could already feel the energy in the air.  I really liked this scene as I walked past, much like many of the yards in the neighborhood that morning.

My press box across from the Pagoda

The sunrise came and left fast, but for about 10 minutes was completely stunning.

I invested the first few hours of my morning capturing that scene.

My first large painting of the day.  When painting on location vs the studio the biggest benefits are capturing specific light and color along with nailing down accurate proportions.  About 2 hours into my second painting of the morning (perhaps 45 minutesish before the green flag), I starting putting in some of the tedious details of the pre-race ceromonies. I quickly realized I was going to spend a solid 3-4 more hours just hammering that home and instead of investing my day capturing that detail work, I set that 75ish% complete painting aside and started a new one.  This time, I focused more on the foreground so I could eventually paint Will Power’s car into that piece.

Towards the end of the race I was juggling 4 different paintings in progress.

The aftermath of 12 hours in that 8×8′ box.

The was painted a week before on a scouting trip in preparation of race day.

I tried to capture the motion of Helio’s car racing over the bricks.

What a day it was!  It felt like a blink and the day was over.  I still have to finish these paintings up in the studio but I will post photos once done.  Fingers crossed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will have me back next year

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This scene is an homage to Bert & Laura Miller’s time in Indianapolis, including all sorts of symbols that have specific connections to their history with Indy.  The deeper I got into this piece, the more excited I got. It was really fun to return to my “old” style and let loose with the design.

Below is the second piece I did which is inspired by a sunrise that Laura took from their condo overlooking the Atlantic.

Above is a piece Bert and Laura bought in 2011 that is inspired by Indy.

This is a “doodle” that I made in some random meeting while I was working at Protis and was created around a quote by Bert that stuck with me.  In 2012, I eventually turned this doodle into a larger, more refined acrylic painting that is seen below.

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About 20 minutes after arriving in New Harmony, Jed and I got to work.

I painted a similar scene last year painting right into the light, very tough to paint.  Roy Boswell recently gave me some advice on painting scenes like this that I am anxious to try.

Kyle Ragadale, Jed Dorsey, Benny Sanders, Mike Sinon and I all stayed in a cabin together out at New Harmonie State Park.  This was our first morning and it was cooooooold.

Second painting of the day, it was during this painting that our lunch was delivered via golf cart which is one of my favorite things about painting at the First Brush of Spring.

It was so cold that a woman chased Benny down the street trying to sell him a $5 sweater.

Kyle’s palette

This was my 75 minute painting for the Quick Draw competition

This was Kyle’s massive 75 minute painting, he was so pumped to have won.

Show and tell at night

The second morning we went out to the river

Benny

When we all walked in to the cabin on Friday night and saw Jed’s painting underneath this fish, we all knew he had a winner.  I’m surprised he didn’t win it all with this piece but did finished 3rd overall.

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I now had a palette of 25 colors to work with. I decided to first attempt to recreate one of my paintings on a 16×32 plate.  I chose a scene that I paint fairly often and one with a recognizable focal point, Ann Dancing on Mass Ave.  I quickly learned a few things creating piece:

•Placing legos piece by piece is very time consuming and the countless modifications took its toll on my fingers

• A 16×32 pixel scene is super limiting and the information was difficult to simply

• Although there are 25 colors, most are super saturated and are hard to work with

After this failed attempt I knew it would not be very efficient to keep experimenting with the actual physical lego blocks, it was just too time consuming so I turned to photoshop.  I scanned in the 25 lego colors and made a custom Indexed Color Profile where I could simplify any image into the 25 Lego Colors.

This generally generated ok results but over time I noticed the Photoshop Color Indexing Algorithm would prioritize color accuracy over value accuracy.  Almost any fine art painter would tell you that value (the lightness or darkness of a particular color) is ten times more important than color itself.  So I took those 25 colors, gray-scaled them and then created a second Photoshop Color Index Profile with just the black and white values of the Legos.

My first grayscale test below was interesting.  I learned a lot through these tests and one of the biggest lessons was even though a value of a color is spot on, if its high chroma, it can quickly overpower an entire image.

So the largest standard lego plate is 15×15″ which breaks down into 48×48 pixels.  As I kept experimenting in photoshop with both photos and my paintings, I did not have too much luck simplifying these images.  The limited 48×48 size along with the natural tones of my paintings were not combining well. I did find if I could increase the size of the lego plate to 96×96 the results were exponentially better.  See below, the middle image was 96×96 vs the left at 48×48.  The right side is keyed for value accuracy.

After all of this effort, I thought my earlier work would lend itself better towards the bright Lego palette.  I settled on one of my favorite paintings ever, Wheat Field with Rising Sun. I built it in photoshop first, using a combination both the Lego Color Indexed File and the Lego Grayscale Indexed File to come up with what I thought was the strongest image possible.

I then used this as my roadmap for building the final image.  Even with this map, it still took me about 5 hours to place all 2,304 tiles on the final Lego piece.

I was super excited with this final piece but I had no idea how much time I would invest pulling it off.  I wanted to make some smaller versions of my paintings but getting down to the 8×12 pixel sizes, my pieces were so abstracted they looked like nothing.  I randomly decided to put a few famous paintings through my Lego Color Index Profiles and the results were awesome!!  I decided to make a series of mini masterpieces and even built custom frames for each piece to mimic the frame that masterpiece is in in the museum.

Color Hex Code – Grayscale Hex Code – Lego Color

c61203 6f6f6f Red
780b08 424242 Maroon
ae6dbf 989898 Lavandar
f7a9d3 d3d3d3 Pink
f5ce1b 828282 Cad Yellow Medium
fd750f 868686 Cad Orange
652313 393939 Brown
9b7e52 737373 Tan
b27e19 636363 Gold
d1c686 acacac Pale Yellow
fab208 838383 Cad Yellow Dark
868a4d 696969 Olive Green
c7e2d3 d4d4d4 Super Light Blue
1b59be 6a6a6a Medium Blue
a3c529 767676 Light Yellow Green
0a713c 404040 Medium Geen
9c9a9b a0a0a0 Medium Grey
515055 505050 Dark Grey
0c0c0c 090909 Black
111c3a 212121 Dark Blue
0e2418 191919 Dark Green
cee388 b1b1b1 Light Pale Green
f7f7f7 f7f7f7 White
6197c6 9a9a9a Light Blue
5e8061 7e7e7e Blue Green Gray

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Donna Short, Jessica Green, Alicia Zanoni, Stephanie Thompson, Addie Hirschten, Jed Dorsey, Benny Sanders, and myself.

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This is the single sheet of canvas used all folded up.  In this state is weighs approximately 75-100 lbs

16 Gallons of Gesso was used.  The first layer took 8 gallons to cover.  The next 2 layers took 4 gallons each.  For future reference, I should have gone ahead and put a 4th layer of gesso down.  It was just barely “spotty” looking at the underneath side once covered in paint meaning in spots, the gesso layer was still too thin.

I am a brand ambassador for Royal Talens North America so they kindly gave me a discount on this huge order of paint.  When I completed the Urschel Laboratories Mural I kept track down to the approximate ml of paint used on that project for future reference. That paid off. I was under a strict timeline with this Butler mural and I knew I wouldn’t have any time to make trips to an art store if I ran out of any specific color.  The Urschel Mural was almost exactly half this size, I took the ml used in that project and doubled it to get the estimated paint used on this project.  When I placed the order, I added in additional quanities of colors like Ultramarine Blue & Titanium white which I knew I was go through at a super rapid rate.  The 12×40′ Urschel Mural took 8 gallons of Gesso & approximately 18,490 ml of Amsterdam Acrylic Paint, the Butler Mural at (paint size) 23×43′ took 16 gallons of gesso and approximately 36,000 ml of Amsterdam Acrylic Paint.

Kyle Ragsdale recommended I just start by throwing buckets of paint on the canvas, I really had no other ideas as to how to get this thing started, so I took his advice and just started throwing thinned down acrylics.

With a watecolor background, I worked wet on wet, I used a commercial sprayer to wet than canvas prior to throwing the paint.

I used a mop to push the color fields into each other, along with soak up some of the excess water.  The floor of the Lily Hall Studio Theatre was not very flat either.  The room used to be a dance floor and years ago it was covered with 3/4″ plywood.  Those seems of the plywood proved to be super challenging to work around through the whole process. You don’t have to look hard to see them in the image above. A few work arounds to “camo” them in involved constant moving the canvas around the room so it never dried too much with the same “peaks & valleys”.  Another trick was varying the opacity throughout the composition as I built it up.  The super organic areas of “thin” juxtaposed with high areas of opacity gave the piece an intentional looking variety that by the end, almost completely mask the lines of the floor.

Once the canvas was covered, Graham and I grabbed the corners and futher started mixing the colors into each other.  Much like real watercolor, it got significantly lighter as it dried and gave the painting a nice organic ground.

After the first few small 1×2″ and then 4×8″ thumbnail sketches, my working sketch was 4×8′.  In my smaller sketches and in this first large one, butler was just a small part of a large world.  I wasn’t happy with how little of campus was shown so I asked my wife, Halie, (a Butler alumnus) for help.  We were in the snug at the Broad Ripple Brewpub with my sketchbook in hand when this particular angle of campus emerged.  I took that sketch to Butler the next day and sketched it larger.  This is what I used to inform the final composition.

I am also a Brand Ambassador for Royal & Langnickel Paint Brushes.  They kindly supplied the brushes for this project.  The work horses quickly become those big orange R7500B-20 Vienna Brights.  Their shape held well through daily abuse of the creation of this mural.

Drawing out with super thin “watery” acrylic.  I essentially took a small bucket of water, tinted it with Prussian Blue and started drawing.  In this first layer I was super messy & drippy, throughout the process you can see that I embraced this first layer in spots and kept many of this drips in the final composition.

In order to both save my back and to get long fluid flowing lines, I taped a Royal & Langnickel Jumbo Round to the end of a paint pole and this is what I used to draw out the initial composition.

Matthew Allen painting in the light sides of the buildings in the Indianapolis Skyline.

My brother, Nathan, and his fiance, Sarah, came and helped me start filling in basic shapes of color.

Drawing out Hinkle Fieldhouse

Lots of time was spent going between the floor and the scaffold. Seeing it from above was so incredibly important for establishing proportions and color balance.

I worked wet on wet, throughout the whole process.  In that yellow area, I am both increasing the intensity of color, while creating more of a gradient into the blues and pinks, while also building up a bit more opacity.

The timeline was June 2 – July 31, but due to summer camps and construction on the stage of Clowes Hall, my real working time was just over 4 weeks to complete.  With such a tough deadline, I had to enlist help.  This was our first “pizza & beer” night.  I essentially turned it into a giant paint by number so they each had flat basic shapes to fill in.

Sammy Daniel, Liz Greene, Charlie Schmeltzer, Mitch Greene, & Halie Vining helping me paint.

Same crew with the addition of Alex Reiff (red shirt) painting the roof of the farm house.

The first time we rolled it up to take it over to the stage of Clowes Hall.  By this point it weighed approximately 175 lbs, we know this because of the counter balance on Butler’s fly system.

Its about to go up!!  I was super pumped to see it vertical for the first time.

Thankfully I like heights.  The surprising thing to me was that I thought I would love working in the lift and being on stage but I quickly learned that the creation moved much slower.  It was the first time I felt how big this thing actually was.  No longer could I just bounce from place to place as I could when it was on the floor but now I really had to plan and work down single channels until it was time to move the lift again.  It was fun on the stage, but the process moved slow.  I was excited to get it back to the floor so I could start “running” again.

My mom stopped by and even helped for a little bit.

Still using the paint pole at times.

Local attorney and friend, David Muller, stopped by and helped for several hours.

One of my favorite features of this mural.  I invited 9 of my artist friends over to help one evening.  Rich Anderson, Benny Sanders, Johnny McKee, Matthew Allen, Kyle Ragsdale, Nathan Foxton, Kipp Normand, Alicia Zanoni, & Graham McMullen (not in photo).  I asked them to help me with some of the busy work but more importantly, I asked them to help me with the skyline.  I asked them to paint original paintings in their own style in the shadows of the city.  I asked them to keep their values dark and subtle but they could do anything they wanted in those shadows.

Nathan Foxton working on the One America Building.  To the lower right you can see Alicia’s plastic inspired shadows.  You can also barely make out some Kyle Ragsdale figures right “below” Nathan’s building.

It looks like a messy process, but thankfully everyone here are pro’s and there were no accidents during while they were helping.  Also, acrylics are super forgiving so I was pretty fearless just letting them do their thing.

Benny working on a very subtle River Scene that really stands out in the final installation.  One of my favorite parts of the whole piece.

Kipp is known as a mixed media assemblage artist, but don’t let him fool ya, he is solid with a brush.

Our crew

In order to get everyone in, I had to time-lapse it which led to some really interesting outtakes.   Needless to say, we had fun.

I would often eat lunch from right here..

Dragging a park bench underneath the canvas.  I used it to raise the canvas in order to get some “organic” dripping effects where that giant road meets campus.

The final push.  Deadline is Sunday, Friday night I called in a favor.  Halie, Sammy, & Charlie came back to help me with some final busy work that needed to be completed.  Sammy even tackled the shadow side of one of the buildings in the skyline.

I was super thankful to have an art store worth of paint at the ready.  The standard colors were awesome, but I also used both Amsterdam’s lines of Pearls & Metallic’s to help give some elements some extra flair.

That #20 Vienna after over 260 hours of work, still holding form.

That last Saturday night was a long one.  I stayed all night just making minor changes and adding subtle details.

The canvas was significantly heavier by this point, I think we were all super surprised.  I forgot to ask Jimmy the approximate weight based upon the fly’s counter balance, but the math puts it at about 300 lbs.

The deadline was July 31st, but it wasn’t installed until the first week of September.  So it was stored above the stage of Clowes. It was flown & hung completely vertical and hidden in their ceiling.  I couldn’t believe they were able to hide a 40′ above that stage, but they did!

Butler asked me to keep the whole process secret and it was totally worth it for this moment alone.  What a surreal experience unveiling this massive project to my friends, family, and the Butler community.

James Cramer is the Community Relations Manager at the Butler Arts Center.  He is the reason I first exhibited at Clowes Hall in late 2016 and was who I approached about this project.  He was a big advocate for me and help make this happen.  He was there at every step of the way, from coaching me for my first meeting with Ty to helping install the canvas on the last day.

Ty Sutton is the Executive Director at the Butler Arts Center and was the ultimate decision maker in allowing me this opportunity.  Ty put his trust in me and gave me 100% free reign on this piece.  It was great getting to know him better through this process.

Speech time!

The Crowd

The Cue:  “Without Further Ado … “The Journey from the Outside In”

Right after the curtain drop, I am thankful so many people shot photos and video as my back was turned the whole time so I missed it live.

Signing the painting.  Almost 3′ was trimmed off the bottom and 18″ off of each side.  I wasn’t quite sure where that bottom corner would eventually be so I waited until it was up to sign.

My family

Left to Right: James Cramer, Justin Vining, Ty Sutton, Lisa Whitaker

“The Journey from the Outside In”

I time lapsed the Unveiling and Benny & his girlfriend Hayley, crashed one of the frames.  I shot with an open aperture and slow shutter speed which created this blurred image.

The time-lapse is just over 42,000 still photographs stitched together and then sped up a ton.

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