The Art of Kevin Mayes

Morning Monarchs
by Kevin Mayes

 Once in a great while you find yourself with a client that turns out to be your dream client. Such is the case here. I have done a lot of work for him for his business and three weeks ago he called me and asked to commission a painting. What he had in mind was to have me base this painting on a fine art poster he had gotten back in the seventies. Now he didn't want it reproduced but rather for me to use it for inspiration to create my own work using the same subject matter and nothing more. So, what I did was to give the print a look. The print was so  faded that the only color left in it was blue! Okay, the subject is butterflies with a plant. I did some research on Monarch's and found that their favorite food source is the common milk weed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the blossoms of the plant are not only very nice but very interesting as well! Below is what I came up with and a very brief description of the stages shown. The painting is 28" X 22" oil on paper mounted on a Birch panel.

 

The line drawing submitted for approval. Once approved the drawing is copied onto a good paper and mounted. For this painting the drawing was mounted on a 28" X 22" Birch panel and sealed with acrylic medium.

Once the drawing has been mounted and sealed I rough in an acrylic under painting to serve as a guide to the color scheme. This allows me to get a feel for the painting and a reference point for making choices and decisions about color, lighting and form.

I work from the background forward. Here the background and the plant are almost done and the blossoms in progress. The butterflies have not had their first pass yet nor has the foreground blossom.

The finished piece framed ( the frame was provided by the client) and ready for the client.

As I mentioned earlier, this client is my dream client. He knows what he wants and yet leaves the creating to me. Gotta love it when the clients says, 'Make it your own, I am sure that I will be more than happy with what you create'.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!