'Triumph of Daedalus Over Fate and Futility'

It is finished! The 120-inch by 60-inch commission painting of Daedalus and Icarus is finished and ready for delivery and installation in its new home. The last few weeks since I last posted on this project have been a whirlwind. I attended FACE, the first annual Figurative Artist's convention in Miami, FL which was an incredible experience. As soon as I got back to the studio, my full focus was on getting the final figure in the painting, Icarus, painted in color, making final touch-ups to the painting, and getting the best images I could pre-varnish to the client for final approval. Once that approval was given, I signed the painting, got a light coat of varnish on it, and, just yesterday, rented a 16-foot box truck to get the painting to the photographer and back...just in time to make the Art Renewal Center's Annual Salon entry deadline of tomorrow AM. Whew! I first posted about this commission last December, almost a year ago, while building the 120x60 inch aluminum panel it is now painted on and while still looking for models for the five figures...so it has been a constant, unmissable presence around the studio for a long time. As happy as I am to have it completed, I will definitely miss it once it's gone. It's still a little too soon after finishing work for me to have enough distance to critically assess how it all turned out, but I can say I am very pleased with it and proud to have painted it. The next step, of course, is transporting the painting to the client’s home and installing it. The room where it will be displayed is a beautiful space, and I hope to post a few images of it on the wall in a few weeks and have some final thoughts about the composition. In the meantime, here are some final images of the finished painting:

A detail of Icarus:  

A detail of Daedalus and attending figures: 

And a detail of the boy figure: