Alberta Aurora is Installed

I received word and this photo of the commissioned painting, Alberta Aurora, that it now hangs in its location at Livingston Place in Calgary. More photos to come.

Unfolding painting in Calgary

Leaving Vancouver, December 11 at 7 am and arriving in Calgary at 9:15, I was prepared to see the folded canvas for the first time since it left my studio in September. Here is Calgary as seen from my Westjet arrival.



Arriving at Livingston Place Tower II, the folded painting was brought to me in the main lobby for opening out



By 3:30 pm I had successfully opened the painting, re-framed it and re-wrapped it. It will be hung in the main foyer in March.

Livingston Place Towers: Model and Actual

Model of the two Livingston Place Towers.



View from the street of the main foyer entrance to Tower II.



The actual Tower II: Livingston Place.





View from the street of the actual main foyer entrance to Tower II.



Livingston Place Tower II.

Packed Painting for Travel

To ship and move the painting through doorways and into trucks for shipping, the canvas needed to be able to collapse. This required three folds with the environment kept above freezing. The acrylic polymer is very flexible when kept warm but if frozen can easily crack. I decided to send the painting up to Calgary in early September and placed in a warm storage room at the Livingston Place complex until I unfolded it in December. Here is painting is in my Vancouver studio ready to be wrapped in polyethylene.



The painting is now wrapped and strapped and ready to be shipped to Calgary.

Unstretched to Stretched: Unframed to Framed

The painting is put up right for the first time.



The painting is lowered on to a stretched and pulled taut.



A frame is put on the final painting and again returned to a vertical position.

Adjustments and Additional layers

Adjustments and detailing were made to the first coat of gel once the layer was dried.







A second thin orange gel coat was applied to the painting and again left to dry.

Beginning the Commissioned Painting

Now that the final image had been determined I needed to start the commissioned painting. As a smooth surface was required I used three 5' x 10' 3/4 panels of plywood linked together to use as a painting platform on the studio floor.




A roll of 10 foot canvas was next laid out to give added evenness and consistency to the surface. This would not be the painted surface.




Following this a layer of polyethylene was placed over the canvas then a second layer of canvas which would be the painting support.



I began the painting by putting a preliminary colour on the canvas.



Then the first layer of coloured gel was placed on the painting using a large trowel. This required a week to dry and set before continuing.