Brooklyn Bridge, dropping it off

Saturday morning was cold and windy. The panel caught in the wind a fluttered around in the air, but it returned back down to ground and arrived in one piece at the Salmagundi club.

Later I went out to Brooklyn to help Naomi Campbell with transporting her painting. Using her wheely gizmo, we took the subway and carried it up and down the stairs of the various subways, arriving just before closing time at the Salmagundi Club.  Naomi is pictured here with, Leendert van der Pool,  the artist and organizer of the History Panorama.  the Show opens Monday and the official opening is February 6th, 2008 at Forty-Seven Fifth Avenue | New York, NY 10003 | 212-255-7740 | http://www.salmagundi.org

 

Brooklyn Bridge, almost there

 Thought I had finished then noticed I had missed the floor boards, flag poles and some cables to the right and left. This is a complicated construction.

 

Brooklyn Bridge, progress

These two photos show the progress over the past couple of weeks.  The photos were taken with my camera phone, hence the quality is not that great.  The left shows the remains of the under painting in the foreground.  At this stage I had the planks of wood going horizontally, as they are today, but in the etching dating from 1883, I noticed they were vertical, so I am in the process of covering them up. 

For the sky, which was originally  blue, I worked in between the steel ropes with a mixture of Indian yellow and little cobalt blue with a small pallet knife, preserving the shape of the cables.  My aim is to give the painting an impressionistic look, a style that was fashionable around 1867-1886.

 

In the photo on the right, I blocked in the figure and shadows.  I added the girl, which I took from an 1883 painting by Albert von Keller Kleine, entitled Pariserin 1883.  She was originally facing away from the light, so I changed the lights to dark shadows,  and the dark to lights.   I added the dog as she was looking down, (he came from a puppy food ad.) The dog, I feel gives the girl a focal point and adds a touch of sentimentality which the people of the 19th century loved so much.

 

Brooklyn Bridge – underpainting

 Profile: Brooklyn Bridge – oil on canvas by Janet A. Cook

Brooklyn Bridge underpainting

I chose the Brooklyn bridge (1883) because it is an icon of New York. The bridge was the vision of an engineer called John A. Roebling, but it was his son, with the help of his wife that bought the 16 year project to fruition.

My first task was to simply get the 72″ x 36″ canvas panel back to my studio; no easy feat without a car in Manhattan. I then removed the shrink wrap and gessoed it with one more coat of oil ground to give the surface a slightly smoother surface. I also painted the edges black, as we have been requested to do so. This will keep our paintings consistent and to make it easier to touch up in the course of their travels.

I drew my inspiration for the view from researching pictures on the web of the Brooklyn bridge and taking my own photos. My main inspiration came in the form of a small black and white photo, taken early in the 20th Century. As things may have changed since the opening in 1883 to when this picture was taken, I supplemented this with prints of the original plans, and the etchings of the opening day ceremonies. I also researched the color of the bridge; a reddish color made from a mineral pigment, called “Rawlins Red.” The mineral came from a mine near Rawlins, Wyoming.

Pictured here is the underpainting in red and raw umber in oil.