Scott Moore/Artist,Laguna Beach,California

This is the initial setup of the props for "California Highways". In the photo below, you will see the post card I will be using as my background on the painting. Above you can see the 'story' beginning to unfold. This oil painting will show a married couple stopping to have a refreshment and to write a post card to a friend while traveling around California via their automobile and house trailer. All the components of the painting have a role in telling the story.

I will have the woman sitting at a picnic table, enjoying a Coke, listening to her transistor radio and writing back home on a post card (the post card pictured here). Her husband will be taking a photo of the surroundings while she writes. Notice that the date and stamp are from the mid forties and my story is from 1956. I will be changing the postmark and the stamp to conform with the time period.

This stamp of "George Eastman" was used in 1956, so I will replace the 1 cent stamp with this 3 cent stamp. Very appropriate since the camera being used in the painting is a "Kodak" box camera.

Here's a close up of the area where the woman will be sitting. I've constructed a mock up of a picnic table out of cardboard. Notice the vintage California state map tablecloth.

Here's a close up of the camera, the Texaco road map of California, and the six pack of Coca-Cola.

The 'California Pottery' flamingo portrays the souvenir that this couple has purchased in memory of their trip around the state. As soon as I decide how large each object needs to be in the painting (the car and trailer need to be considerably larger in scale so that my people can be proportionately large enough to be seen in detail when painted) then I will pose my models (the man and woman) for this painting. My wife Carol and I may be the models. Like my wife says "I am not a cheap model... just an inexpensive one!"

Well, Carol and I decided that the people in this painting are 'us all over'. Here you can see Carol writing the postcard that will adorn the background of the painting. As she writes, she enjoys her bottle of Coke, listens to her transistor radio, admires her souvenir flamingo and looks up to see her husband taking a photo.

Her husband, with his Kodak hanging around his neck, decides to record an image from their trip. Now it's time to stretch some top of the line linen on some heavy duty strecher bars. I have determined the final size of this oil painting to be a slight vertical at 48" x 45".

I have spent this last week drawing all the elements on the canvas. I am beginning the painting by applying turpentine thinned washes on each element, keeping it fairly loose. The hue or color of the washes will be adjusted accordingly when I apply the final 'heavier' application of paint. I will finish the background (post card) first and then move into the foreground part of the painting.

Here I am beginning to block in the stamp.

I've just completed the black shading around the "California Highways" lettering and begun the 'palm tree' area of the card. Notice the date stamp on the cancellation (1956).

Here's a close-up of the six pack of Coke (missing one bottle because it's being drunk by the woman at the picnic table).

Here is the whole canvas with the entire background 'blocked' in. Notice how the post card and the stamp are attached to the edge of the canvas for quick reference. I have begun the 'real' palm tree on the right to mimic the trees in the post card and to give me a taller design element on the right side of the image.

Here is a close up of the California 'flamingo souvenir'.

The California souvenir tablecloth's imagery has black outlines around all the objects. I'm going to paint in all the outlines first and then fill in the objects with their respective colors.

Here is a section of the tablecloth with the color blocked into the black outlines. Looks a lot like a child's coloring book (I'm pretty good at staying inside the lines).

I'm now beginning to establish the cast shadows from the objects on the tablecloth. I'm blocking them in with warm/cool gray mixtures made from ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

Here's a close-up of a cast shadow.

Here is an overall photo of the entire tablecloth completely blocked in with its first passage of oil.

Here's a close-up. I'll now move on to each object on the tablecloth, rendering each with a thin layer of turpentine-thinned oil.

The car and trailer now have the preliminary paint.

The transistor radio is blocked in. The camera is next...

OK, the camera is history. Now for the Texaco road map...

I'm done with "The Man Who Wears The Star" (Texaco slogan from my childhood) and I will move on to the two figures and the picnic table.

There! Just the man with his camera and the painting is completely blocked in...

He's finished! Check out the next photo...It's the whole painting all blocked in!

Well, now for about a month's worth of applying the final paint. It's obvious to me that the first thing I will have to do is darken the entire background (since it is in the shade). I will determine its degree of darkness (or value) by comparing it to the light struck objects it frames (ie. the flamingo, car & trailer, radio).

The background is completely finished. It is considerably darker than its underpainting, and now gives a more subdued 'wall' behind the objects on the tablecloth.

Here's a close-up of the time stamp. You can see the rich quality of the heavier paint application compared to the 'blocked in' preliminary paint.

The stamp, now that I look at it, needs a few darker strokes of paint on the perforations, in order to show the spaces between the postcard and the stamp. I'll move onto the objects on the tablecloth next...

The flamingo is done! Go up 17 photos and compare it to the way it looked blocked in. Nice and rich now! On to the palm tree to the right of the flamingo.