Look up at that Bald Eagle.  A symbolic bird with a majestic presence.

The client and I agreed that the soaring Bald Eagle is a feast for the eyes.  The bird is still, with wings proudly outstretched, gliding through the air at speeds up to 45mph.  Power and grace.

It reminded me of the eagles from my youth in Pennsylvania, to the predator birds on my cross-country trip of Argentina, and  of course the Bald Eagles of my annual summer trips to Maine.

Let’s take a look at how this commission developed…

A loose graphite sketch exploring scale and placement.  Similar to Gaughin’s methods of drawing outlines in blue pencil.

Building from the process in my CMYK paintings I start with magenta. Positive and negative space.

Coming in with Cyan (blue) to divide the space even more, and start to tease out details of the eagle.

CMYK: Y is for yellow.

And K, is for “key“, better known as black.

Filling the foreground to establish a horizon in the background.

A blend of black on the water to accentuate a feeling of flatness relative to the flying eagle.

Now that the coastline is cohesive the space is really starting to be defined.  I’m exaggerating the highlights on the eagle to pop it forward.

Using one of my favorite blues to fill in the atmosphere of the sky.

Building the ocean up with more realistic colors, in the final version you can feel the warmth of the red underneath.

Right before its finished the sea darkens with texture, the mountains crystalize out-of-focus in the background, and the final details are added to the Bald Eagle.

Soaring Bald Eagle (for CZ) | oil, acrylic, and graphite on canvas | 14 x 18 inches | 2011

Click image for larger image.

The final painting is a realistic portrayal with a signature painterly handling of the paint.

If you are interested in a commission contact me directly info@arilankin.com

I decided to start my portrait series with a living woman artist.  She is a pop icon muse to millions of people across the world, a philantrhopist, and an advocate for LGBT communities.  A woman of many looks and states of being, Lady Gaga.

I respect that she lives the life of a true rock and roller.  Working hard around the clock and partying when the mood strikes.  I poured over hundreds of images of her many looks: on stage, red carpet, ultra glam, sunglasses, and partied out.  A sunglass look, and a partied out look made it to the final three, but the winning look is a candid shot of her backstage.

Lady Gaga and Bloom are on display at Atelier Klimat in NYC, now through the end of April.

Let me take you through the painting and then you can watch the time lapse video.

Start the painting with the lips, and a simple grid to map out the space.

And we are officially under way after touching all four edges of the canvas with paint.

A loose foundation with all of her features.

Tighten up the proportions and add some teeth.

Fleshing out her back, giving the figure volume.

Remove the red and add some blue to the background.  Later on I decided not to have any blue in the painting.

Now it’s time to add some volume to the hair and activate the negative space with flecks of red.

I collaged on her tattoo and then painted over it.

Time to get rid of the blue, the purple and the handlike flower shape to the left of the figure.

Soften the background with some lighter colors and place a form in the negative space to anchor Lady Gaga.

A curtain falls, everyone in the public eye has a secret private life.

A flower blossoms from her chest and extends out past the curtain.  Certain things are better when shared with the world.  A lot more blonde hair!

A few composition changes in the curtain and touching up some details.

Lady Gaga, 30 x 30 inches, oil and collage on canvas. Ari Lankin 2011

I’m still deciding on who’s portrait to paint next in the series.  Suggestions…..

This is a recap of a custom painting I did when asked to contribute a work of art to support Doug Varone and Dancers at the upcoming Cast Party on March 15th.  More details about Doug Varone and Dancers, The Opening Night Benefit Cast Party, and his new show Chapters from a Broken Novel at the bottom of the page, but for now lets get to the painting…

The painting was inspired by Doug Varone’s Alchemy.

The figure is derived from a great photograph by Phil Knott of the dancer Netta Yerushalmy.  The above image is a snapshot with my phone off a computer screen that I used to inform my prepatory drawing.  You can see the original photo here.

The drawing was a chance to familiarize myself with the pose and create a sculptural representation.  I drew the photograph in the same way that I have drawn Edgar Degas’ dancers at The Guggenheim Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Degas’ dancers were originally made out of clay before being cast in bronze and have a gestural quality.  His “studies” often exclude details in the face and hands.  Here’s an example from The MET.

The marks I used for this drawing simulate the mass of a sculptural form.  I solidified the hands, obscured the face, and then added a base to further the sculptural effect.

Let’s start on a black ground.

Blocking out the negative space gives the form mass.

Some purple and blue for the highlights.  I simulated museum lighting.

The form of the figure is solidifying.

The figure looks as though it is on the edge.  An edge further emphasized by the base of the sculpture.

Varone's Alchemy (Dancer), oil on canvas, 8 x 6 inches, 2011, Ari Lankin.

Some finishing touches create a simple and expansive space.  A space for this figure to hover between kinetic and potential energy.  It is forever in a pose of sublime expression.

Degas' Dancer In The Guggenheim, oil on canvas, 8 x 6 inches, 2011, Ari Lankin.

Degas at The MET, oil on canvas, 8 x 6 inches, 2010, Ari Lankin.

This is the third painting in my series of sculptural dancers.  The other two (above, and here) were inspired by drawings I did of Degas at The MET and The Guggenheim.  Returning to my studio I used the drawings to create the paintings without ever referring to photographs of the original sculptures.  I did the same thing with this painting.  I felt that degree of separation gives my interpretation a life of its own.  After creating the preparatory drawing I did not look at the original photograph again.  I’m looking forward to adding more sculptural dancers this series.

Come support a great cause, mingle with the Doug Varone and Dancers family, chat with me, and win this painting during a silent auction at The Cast Party on March 15th.  You can purchase tickets here for the March 15th Opening Night Cast Party benefit for Doug Varone and Dancers.  The Cast Party is at The Park Restaurant Garden at 9:00pm following the opening night performance of Chapters from a Broken Novel at the Joyce Theater starting at 7:30pm.

Chapters from a Broken Novel performance schedule at the Joyce this week, get tickets
March 15th – 20th

Tue-Wed 7:30pm

Thu-Fri 8pm

Sat 2pm & 8pm

Sun 2pm & 7:30pm

Dance Chat: Wed, Mar 16

Robert Capra, Spanish Loyalist At The Instant Of Death, 1936.

On a side note, the pose from Alchemy reminded me of this iconic photo by Robert Capra during the Spanish Civil War.

Bloom, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches. Ari Lankin 2010

Walking the streets of New York City is like jumping into a sensory abyss.  Every sense is activated.  Liberation or oppression is for you to decide.  People are surrounded by man made things.

I make eye contact all day on the streets.  This is how the humans that graze the concrete jungle anonymously connect.  The moment eyes lock is a tremendous experience.  These streets serve up encounters with strangers, potential lovers, celebrities, radiant children, and old friends.  This is the biggest littlest city you’ve ever seen.

I am the guy that wonders the length of the subway platform late at night looking at the debris in the tracks, the graffiti, the travelers, the architecture, and the years of wear and tear.   When I notice you on the street  I’m going to look you in the eyes and acknowledge your presence.

I am also the guy that invents imaginary worlds.  I do this to better understand the world we live in.  Our world is full of energies that are larger than the physical self.  This painting is a space inspired by the greatness that we all share from a divine source of love.

Speaking of love, I’d like to thank Das Racist for their track “Rappin 2 U” off of their fresh FREE mixtape Sit Down, Man.  I was inspired to use this song after seeing them the other night at their sold out show at Highline Ballroom.  They are tearing it up right  now, touring all over the place.  Catch them when they come to your town before they blow up and only play mega stadiums.  Also keep an ear out for their new album dropping this summer.

And to the process…

Starting with a blank canvas on the first sitting.  Very early it had a web structure but by the end of the day it was an eye.  See the next picture for a close up of the texture.  I love wet into wet, and I kept this painting wet for its entire creation.

Close up detail of the left side of the eye.

The subject of the eye begins to turn into a world of the seen.

A world visible on the outside and the inside.

Simplifying the space.  Activating the surface with color, texture, and patterning.

Eye contact.

Building up space around a central figure who stares back at the viewer.

Heading towards more abstraction.

Or wait, this figure has a chance, but why is it here?

That’s what I’m here to find out.

Another face immerges behind the central figure.

Too much blue. Navigating the foreground.

A feeling and a potentiality philosophy overtake singular moments of representation.

A deep feeling that has been growing inside of me for years.

A universal human spirit.

A space for things to grow amongst one another.

Place your hands in the earth.

Unlimited growth.

Starting to change the landscape feeling into something more like an architectural portrait.

Time to fuse the different feelings.

Urban, nature, science, metaphor, experience, love, budding growth… the act of painting.

Composition is starting to solidify.

Changing points of access.

Bloom is about sowing the seeds of your life.  Nurture them and feel them grow.  Fill your garden with love and dedication.  Smell the flowers, taste the fruit, and quench your thirst.  There’s plenty to go around so feed the family.

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus

My client lives in the Northeast but loves the island lifestyle. For this commission we wanted to create a window to a tropical world. In his words, “I want to wake up everyday and feel like I’m on the beach.” My dream is to have a place in New York City and a place on a remote island, so I was excited to create a portal to a tropical getaway.

Part of my commission process is to keep the client updated with process shots. I turned the process shots into a time elapse video. The original music, “Desert Walk” is by Lior Magal of D-otherside Music Group.

A painting is a window to another world.

Tabula rasa.

The central tree is the strongest part of the painting so i started with that and a horizon line.  I love sitting on the beach and seeing the slight curve of the horizon on the ocean.

Filling in the negative space to shape the tree.

Color number two,  laying down the groundwork for the leaves.

Starting to get the total composition down.  Kind of looks like an unfinished Cézanne. Cezanne often paints with clusters of closely placed linear brush marks.  He is also known to keep sections of his canvas bare.  I think one of the reasons he did this was to make it easier to carry a wet painting home.

Starting to fill in the left side of the painting.

The trees are starting to come alive.

Next comes the water.

Yellow and green give the trees more vitality.

Starting to add some detailed work to give everything a little more personality.

Keep your eye on the left side.  The bushes are taking shape as well as some wetness in the sand.

Some darks to add more depth.  Leaving some of canvas untouched in the clouds to show my respect for the picture plane.

The Dream, oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 60 inches, Ari Lankin.

A scene good enough for a Corona commercial.  Don’t you wish you could just hop into this painting whenever you wanted?

Ripped into this sucker for an average of 10 hours per day for a week straight. I wasn’t always rolling the camera. 1 picture every 30 seconds; 24 pictures for every second of film.  The still image is from my cell phone, and not the finished image.  High res final painting will be posted in the near future.