Gateway Arch ticket booth mural project / update

The latest round of sketches presented to The National Park Service and PGAV Architectural firm have morphed into the Arch construction scene on the left and a St Louis levee scene on the right, both reduced in scale making more room for the center "map" of the Arch grounds, contained now in a rectangle with foreground figures interrupting and overlaying the corners. The map will include the Illinois side of the river and westward to City Garden. I await a bit more reference photographs of the Arch construction and then I promised to have for the clients a final sketch, and color rendering. At that point they should release me to begin the 53x60" painting, due by the first of May.

"Hills Beyond" painting just finished...

This painting, just finished, is a private commission by a couple for their master bedroom. It measures 32x84" and was a landscape suggested by them.

Foundry Art Centre poster

Commissioned some years ago by an art group restoring a WW2 foundry on the Missouri River in St. Charles, MO, the sketch was developed into the color study but never saw the light of day due to lack of resources. My flat-files in the studio are overflowing with undeveloped pieces that maybe I can bring out and dust off...

Kauffman Foundation "Kansas City" Mural

This is a crude "in progress" digital capture of the mural as it stands - about 50% completed. It is a 8x32 foot mural to be installed at the Kauffman Foundations HQ in Kansas City. It will lead the visitor through a large entrance area into a meeting room that will have a second mural on the subject of Kauffman and the World. That second mural will measure 7x80 feet.

Road to Taos 12x24" original painting

Finally had some time to create this 12x24" painting from reference collected when my daughter Demi and I took a trip to New Mexico this last summer. We were headed up to the Taos ski valley to see a string quartet performance of Beethoven at the St Bernard Hotel School of Music when we saw this scene. We had just been inspired and humbled at the Ernest Blumenshien and Nicholi Fechin Museums, oh boy...

McAtee's Horses 24x36" original painting

While running past my neighbor's pasture off of Grand Army Road, his horses, not unintelligent beings - as they are gathered in the woods taking shelter from the hot sun and the flies, always have a look that seems to wonder, "what the heck are you doing?" This painting attempts to capture that moment. It has just been delivered to the Kodner Gallery in Ladue.

Missouri Botanical Garden commission

Novus International has commissioned two paintings from BHStudio to be included (by summer) in the MOBOT permanent collection. They are to honor Dr. Peter Raven's contribution to the Garden and to the world. Immersing myself in Dr. Raven's biography, I focused on his research in the "Co-Evolution of Pollinators and the Evening Primrose":

 

After completing this sketch I talked with John Behrer, friend and director of the Shaw Nature Reserve who is very familiar with the work of Dr. Raven, and he suggested I broaden the subject to include his work collecting plants across the globe, particularly in equatorial regions. A portion of a quote by Dr. Raven became "Diversity - The Palette of Sustainability":