My Early Work.......C.Y Stephens

During a time of shifting and moving artwork around in our gallery recently we got into a few of my earlier works of art.  If they have been posted before that is ok as I have taken better photos of them and want to repost them to share.

While attending Iowa State University I took one of the painting courses offered.  The course was one that required much discipline to accomplish a number of paintings in a very short period of time.  I really was not an experienced artist and was in college to learn the skills of teaching and the art mediums.   During the painting class I produced many different kinds of painting as I really didn't have any established style of painting.  I was very inexperienced.

I had taken a photography class earlier and I took a picture of the C.Y. Stephens Auditorium.  Being that the photo was mine I could project the photo onto a canvas and I could then start painting.  C.Y. Stephens is a modern building with lots of concrete and windows.  The stairs is a one of many stairs design to take the public up to the main entrances of the auditorium.

The black and white version of the painting gives you a feeling of what I had for references as I mixed the paints to make the values of color for the painting.  My instructor did not give directions or opinions about the students work but this one she felt that I had perfected a great work of art.

I was 20 years old then and fresh out of a small town high school.  It amazes me to this day that I could figure it out as best that I did to get the colors working in the composition. It was trial and error being a major part of the job.  I am sure some of those squares have been painted many layers before I got the right colors to work. At the time this was a popular way of doing paintings fitting into the Pop Art world in some way. I remember specifically a person drawing out the side view of a threshing machine into shapes and painting it in a similar color scheme.

Forty some years later the painting is in good shape. The varnish that we were taught to apply with a brush has yellowed in places.  I am sure there is a process to remove it and replace it with a thin spray of varnish. The modern paining hangs at the top of the stairs in our house and it has always fit into our everyday life.