Kew Gardens Mural (Wall Enlargement)

Kew Gardens Mural (Wall Enlargement). Pictures from the left wall of the London Bridge Hostel Murals.
I like to approximate form with ideal geometries.

I like to draw the mathematical relationships which connect different objects.

I like to simplify things.

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (video)

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (video). A brief approximation of the experience of rotating slowly in the center of the room while standing with one leg planted solidly on the ground. The other leg? That's the one contorted in a dire need-to-maintain-balance position, in choreographed slow-motion tiptoe between bed, bedpost, and floor. "peaceful" was the word most often heard as a description to the room once I had finished. Funny, given that my use of aerosol varnish set off the fire alarm. The entire room was thick with haze and post aerosol fume, but I didn't get it until several dirty looks and one really loud alarm later. But, I digress... Eventually, I had to cut open two onions, leaving one piece in each corner of the room, to get rid of the tremendous smell...

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part IV)

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part IV). Henry Moore currently has 28 sculptures on display at the Kew Botanical Gardens. So, of course I went. A month ago, in fact... and, of course I was inspired to draw some of the gardens... I transferred my watercolor and pencil sketch to the wall, but enlarged a horizontal length of 30cm to 250 cm. This wall provided blank space for the largest painting I have ever painted. Yet.

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part III)

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part III). I kept this idea... In a hostel, who typically stays in a private double room? Couples. So, I went with something which alluded to the idea of a relationship, without being cliche. The biggest bottles I've ever painted... 130cm tall...

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part II)

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part II). Another in the series of posts documenting my first mural assignment (for a hostel near London Bridge) Actually, these two sketches were never realized... the top sketch features a drawing I had done of a Henry Moore sculpture in the Hirshorn (Washington DC)... appropriate since I'm an American artist living in London.... get it? The bottom sketch is a recursive view of the window. The window featured such beautiful woodwork... ..and an amazing view of a really nice building across the street. Essentially, it's a picture of a picture of a picture of a picture... (Recursion is when the definition of something refers to itself). I'm also a mathematician living in London... get it? Anyway, due to the finite limitation of time, I had to cut out these two walls... (not literally).

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part I)

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (Part I). I spent all day yesterday (Saturday) getting a feel for the room and the people who come to stay in the London Bridge hostel. These drawings are loosely to scale... My thought is to produce some kind of serial, a story told in a succession of frames, a love story without the sappiness.

It's really important to me not to make the room too sterile. Although, part of me really wants to make huge drawings of a Hypodermic needle on the big wall by the door, a Scalpel on top of the bed, and a bunch of drawings of Gauze and Band-Aids on the big wall by the bed. I think it's the lighting in the now empty room...