Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Ablaze: Cityscape. Acrylic on Canvas. Palette Knife Painting by Charles Wolf

I love playing boardgames. I really do! No, I don’t mean Monopoly or Risk. I mean Agricola, Dominion, Eclipse, Splendor, Lords of Waterdeep, Letter Tycoon and more. These are new designer board games and card games. In case you did not know, we are in a renaissance of board gaming right now! Thousands of new games are released every year at large board gaming conventions like Essen, Gen Con and more. New board game stores and board game cafes have surfaced over the past 10 years, all dedicated to the classic hobby that has resurged in popularity.

My wife and I play board and card games in the evenings after work most nights and on the weekends. We are part of a weekly board game group, and often go to friend’s homes to play these games. This a wonderful hobby for many reasons, but mostly because it is a way to bond with other people, get out of the house, and away from the computer or TV to actually socialize!

One of my good friends from our weekly group is currently converting a room in home to be a dedicated board game space, where he can keep his collection and to play games when we visit! He was recently looking for new artwork for his room, and I suggested a few modern artists that would match the style of artwork he wanted... predominantly painting cityscapes like this one.  We jokingly laughed at the idea of hanging a Star Wars or Blade Runner art in his board game room, but he was not sure his wife would go for that “decorative style”—they have a lovely home that is coordinated throughout. However, the idea of painting a cityscape with a futuristic twist and dystopian feeling like Blade Runner and other such films inspired to paint my own cityscape.

This work features a burning city at night, light gleaming off the tops of the protruding towers. I “painted” this painting using nothing but my palette knife (a flat sided knife) layering simi-transparent layers one on top of another, adding richness to the painting, until I was satisfied with result. This painting took me close to 8 hours to complete from start to finish. About half way through, I realized that the towers were not high enough and that the perspective was wrong for the effect I was after. My wife commented that they looked like a burning library instead of burning buildings. :  ) So, I, admittedly a little begrudgingly, went back to work for another 4 hours and finished it today!


Here is what it looked like at the half-way point:






Here is the completed painting. 
My wife was absolutely right, much better!



Ablaze. Acrylic on Canvas. 18 x 24. 
Original Palette Knife Painting. Artist Charles Wolf. 
Charles Wolf Studio © 2015.  


Let me know what you think in comments below! 




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