Lord Stanley's Castle, 30 x 30 inches, oil on canvas. Ari Lankin 2011. Available.
Lord Stanley’s Castle – All-Star Home Ice Advantage In The Stanley Cup Finals?
The Stanley Cup is the greatest trophy known to mankind. Besides the Cup’s visual aesthetic beauty it is a vessel representing heart, soul, and tradition. The passion and dedication it takes to win the grueling seven game series is truly mind over matter.
The Cup is alive and growing. Every winner of the Cup has their name engraved on it. When space runs out another ring is added to the bottom of the Cup. If you started playing the game at an early age it’s what you dreamed of winning. Players put everything on the line to win the Cup. It is no wonder the fans turn into frenzied animals.
Home ice advantage is crucial in this sport. The two biggest factors are the home team can match lines and the support of the fans. Since the All-Star game is today, let’s imagine if the NHL All-Star game in the old format of West vs. East determined which conference would have home ice advantage for the Stanley Cup Finals.
It would be a tremendous game. In fact, it would be unlike anything the sport has ever witnessed. However, as a life-time fan and player of the game I think the team with the best regular season performance deserves home ice.
Now let’s get to the painting…
I started the painting not knowing I was going to paint the Cup. The Cup part of the painting started out as two chairs back to back on a bed of grass. On the left side a fragment of a brick wall. A brain sits atop the backrest spinal cord, and the spirit of the Cup was born.
By this time I started breaking the space of the painting up; foreground, middleground, background, and an irregular partitioned space on the left side. The mapping of space is an exciting component of painting. I joined the chairs with some lines that created a cylindrical effect. Then I sculpted out the cup on the top.
I decided the wall on the left needed a more human feeling so I gave it a fleshy opening. A plant grows at a steady pace up the tall pole. There’s a brain in the bowl of the Cup and some heart-wings inside the base.
I added some dark paint on the Cup to create some more volume and solidity in the form. To balance this new mass I added more density to the grass in the foreground.
I turned the grass into ice just like it does every fall as the season starts, and every late December for the Winter Classic. Notice the dasher action that bends the space. The black base of the cup anchors the form and gives it a gravitational relationship to the ice.
Lord Stanley's Castle, 30 x 30 inches, oil on canvas. Ari Lankin 2011. Available.
Here is the final painting. Painting this treasure was unlike any other object I’ve ever painted. I am a painter and a huge hockey fan. This painting symbolizes overcoming any challenge to get to where you want to be in life. Live a life full of love, dedication, and integrity.
Archive of Sketches of The Day
2/28/11
2/27/11
2/26/11
2/25/11
2/24/11
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1/31/11
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1/28/11
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1/21/11
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1/1/11
12/31/10
12/30/10
12/29/10
12/28/10
12/27/10
12/26/10
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12/04/10
12/03/10
12/02/10
12/01/10
11/30/10
11/29/10
11/28/10
11/27/10
11/26/10
11/25/10
11/24/10
11/23/10
11/22/10
11/21/10
11/20/10
11/19/10
11/18/10
11/17/10
11/16/10
Let us all enjoy writing the full year of 2010 on every document. It is a very satisfying year to look at. The above image is a work in progress close up photo of a recent painting. This scene is of a rat poppin’ a bottle of champagne. That’s french for sparkling wine. Eyeballs? Below is the whole painting taken earlier in the evening of the above picture.
