Painting Demo at NWC

Last week I had the opportunity to give a demo at the place where it all started for me, Northwest College in Powell, WY. Northwest was my first REAL experience with art and the time I spent there had a major impact on the course of my career. Under the tutelage of John Giarrizzo, my art professor at NWC, I gained a strong desire to be a painter. John was a huge source of encouragement and support during my struggles of learning how to paint. I had a great time hanging out with him again and visiting with the rest of the faculty there.

Here are some images of my demo, courtesy of Dan Baney. The demo lasted about 3 hrs..

and here's the final piece... (I'm too slow to get any detail in)

A New Painting

Casey Childs, Hayden, oil, gold leaf on canvas, 32x14" Frame by Rett Ashby.

Here's a new painting commission I finished just before Christmas. I haven't done any gold leaf in my work in quite some time, but the client really liked the look of it in the portraits of my boys and wanted me to add it. So I decide to reflect the swirls of her beautiful red hair with the pattern of gold in the background. I think it turned out alright.

Process to Create "Greater Love Hath No Man"

Casey Childs, Greater Love Hath No Man, Oil on Linen, 60x48″

Prints are available HERE

 **UPDATE** I'm currently working on the second panel of this painting originally designed as a diptych. The second panel, which will be displayed on the left, will show the members of the mob outside the door. The wood frame in the middle of the two panels will act as the wall separating the inside and outside of the room. Here's an article from the Daily Herald about the photoshoot. The completed piece will be on display at the Church History Museum fall of 2015. Prints will be available once the painting is completed

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I'm happy to announce that my new painting, Greater Love Hath No Man, received the Charles & Ruth Whiting Award during the 26th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah Exhibition at the Springville Museum in Springville, UT! Here are a couple news articles for the show:

Spiritual snapshots: Popular religious exhibit makes annual appearance at Springville Museum of Art

26th annual Spiritual and Religious Art Exhibit offers inspiration & variety

I've been wanting to show the process I took to create my recent painting, Greater Love Hath No Man, and my research to make it historically accurate, so here goes... The entire painting is not yet finished--the finished painting will be a diptych, so this is detailing the process and research behind the first completed panel.

The Idea
The painting has been a personal project of mine beginning in 2009 when I had the impression to capture the moment right before Hyrum Smith was shot in Carthage Jail at Carthage, IL in 1844. A painting of that moment had never been painted, which made me more excited to do it. I wanted to paint a diptych, a two-panel painting, portraying what was happening on both sides of the door. And the more I thought about this projec,t the more I want to make sure the painting was as accurate as possible, so I began researching this event.

Casey Childs at Carthage Jail in Carthage, IL

The Research
I decided I needed to travel to Illinois to see for myself the room where this took place. So in August 2009, with my friend and photographer, Michael VaughAn, I spent 3 days photographing and documenting the room in Carthage where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered. We were there at approx. 5pm each day to make sure the light in the room was similar to that day in 1844 when they were shot. Here's a short video of our time in Carthage:

Documenting the Process of a Painting - Part I from Casey Childs on Vimeo.

I studied the witness accounts from both survivors of this event, John Taylor and Willard Richards. I tried to stay as close to their accounts as I possibly could even though they varied slightly. I consulted Dr. Joseph L. Lyon who has done extensive research on the scene at Cartage Jail to help me fill in the gaps. He and David W. Lyon wrote a wonderful article, Physical Evidence at Carthage Jail and What It Reveals about the Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. In this article they go into great detail about the crime scene at Carthage Jail, analyzing everything from the type of musket balls the mob members were using down to the angle that the ball was traveling that killed Hyrum. This research and discussion with Dr. Lyon helped me greatly determine how to pose each person in my painting. I then did some quick sketches to figure out the composition of the painting, enlisting the help of a neighbor to get some poses:

Initial Sketch for Painting

Clothing and Props
The next step was to get accurate clothing made for proper reference for my painting as well as to research the props needed. I enlisted the help of costume historian Carma deJong Anderson as well as my mentor, William Whitaker, who has done a TON of research on early 1800s clothing to get accurate clothing from that era. Eldred G. Smith currently owns the clothes Hyrum was wearing at the time of his assassination. Below is an image of Hyrum's clothes:

Images of Hyrum Smith's Clothes

Carma and my mother, Linda, worked tirelessly to sew the clothing my models would be wearing, including a replica of Hyrum's clothes.

Working on Costumes

I also researched the walking sticks Willard Richards and John Taylor were using.

As well as the pistols Joseph and Hyrum were carrying (images courtesy of the Church History Museum in SLC, UT).

To stage this scene properly and accurately pose my models, I felt it necessary to build a set that included the two walls with the door in Carthage Jail.
Once I had the clothing and set built, I was ready for the photo shoot. Here's another short video of our photo shoot in my studio:

Documenting the Process of a Painting - Part II from Casey Childs on Vimeo.

Image from the photo shoot for the first panel of the painting

Creating the Painting
I began with some drawing and painting studies to figure out the expression of Joseph Smith and John Taylor since their expressions are a very important part of the story and composition.

Sketch of Joseph Smith by Casey ChildsSketch of John Taylor by Casey Childs

Oil study of John Taylor by Casey Childs

I then enlarged and transferred my drawing to the final canvas. I did a simple under painting before laying down opaque paint. You can see some of the burnt sienna (orange-brown) coming through in this photo:

Painting in progress

And here's a shot of me working on the painting in my studio (image courtesy of Gwendolyn Soper):

Casey Childs working in the studio

Greater Love Hath No Man

Casey Childs, Greater Love Hath No Man, Oil on Linen, 60x48″

After nearly a year of work and research on this painting, it is half finished. My goal is to paint a dipytch, but this half of the painting is done.

I finished this in time to enter into the Spiritual & Religious show at the Springville Museum in Springville UT. I hope you'll go check it out!

Self-Portrait

Casey Childs, Self-Portrait, Oil, 10x8″

Featured in Poets/Artists Magazine

I'm honored to be included in the Summer Extravaganza Issue (July 2011) of Poets/Artists Magazine. Poets/Artists is a digital magazine that also offers a print-on-demand option for those who wish to have a hard copy. Four of my paintings are featured in the magazine which can be found on pages 73-77. Click here to view or download the magazine.

Quick Painting

Casey Childs, The Aspiring Artist, Oil, 9x6″

This is a quick painting of my first student, Natalie Soper. (I only recently began some teaching in my studio.) I felt like I needed a break from my large painting to work on something smaller so I could remember what it was like to finish a painting! :) Natalie is an amazingly talented young artist and I expect to one day be asking her to teach me...

Sneak Peek of New Painting

Today marks 167 years since the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered in Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844. In remembrance of that day, I'm posting a detail of the project I'm currently working on depicting the moments before Hyrum and Joseph were killed in Carthage. To learn more about this moment in history, go here.

This painting will be a diptych and this image is a detail (work in progress) from the first panel:

Casey Childs, Greater Love Hath No Man Than This (Detail), Oil, 60 x 96″

Throughout this project, I've begun documenting the process of creating the painting in a series of short videos. Check them out here.

2011 Art Slam at Springville Museum of Art

This past week I had the opportunity to participate in the Springville Museum on Art (Springville, UT) 2011 Art Slam. The event was created to kick off Member month for the museum. There were many activities going on that day including artists creating a piece of art in the museum. Myself along with a handful of other artists were asked to create a work of art to exhibit that evening and we had from 10am - 5pm to create it. I decided to paint from a live model, so many thanks to the beautiful Kate for doing such a wonderful job sitting for me all day! And thanks to all who came out to see me paint that day. Here are a few photos:

(thanks to Lisa Bringhurst for these photos)

Below is a video created by the Daily Herald reporting about the event:

2011 Art of the Portrait Conference

I had the opportunity for the second time to attend the Portrait Society of America's Art of the Portrait Conference held this year in Atlanta, GA. If you've seen my blog you know that this year I was selected as a finalist which is a HUGE honor. All the finalists works were amazing. And I'm pleased to announce my painting was awarded First Honors!! (5th place overall)

It's was a great weekend and I enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people and artists. Here are a few pictures:

Some of the finalists paintings on display during the conference.

My painting alongside a painting by the nicest guy and a wonderful artist, Will Nathans.

View from my hotel room. The weather was great!

A demo by David Laffel kicked off the conference.

Jeremy Lipking's painting demo.

The list of the artists who participated in the 6x9 Mystery Art Sale.

My painting sold! Whew...

The amount of people packed into that room was crazy! Lots of fun.

The awards banquet, I was sitting across from David Laffel and Sherrie McGraw. Very cool.

My painting during the video presentation.

The finalists.

I'm sure I'm saying something clever or funny, but probably not.

Jeremy's beautiful face-off painting--amazing brushwork!

Accepting my "First Honors" award.

Building a Crate to Ship Artwork

As part of having my painting selected as a finalist for the Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition, it needs to be on display in Atlanta for the final judging. So that means I need to build a crate to ship my painting out there.

Just one problem--I've never built a crate before.

So after getting some very good tips and advice from Bill Whitaker, here's how I put one together:

I used 3/4" plywood since this is a large painting and I wanted extra sturdy sides to protect a painting of this size. Normally, 1/2 plywood will work just fine and would, obviously, weigh less thus saving on shipping costs. In the picture above, Natalie is taping cut squares of underlayment (bought at Home Depot) in the corners of the box. The corners of the painting will receive most of the stress during shipping so theses pieces will give them a little added protection.

Here I've added the remaining sides to make the crate box. I used 1 1/4" wood screws to secure the pieces together. I drilled pilot holes for the screws--which is very important because the plywood will split if you don't pre-drill. I used a special countersinking drill bit which is designed to pre-drill screw holes as well as cut an indention in the wood to allow the screw to sit flush with the surface of the wood. Not necessary, but looks nicer that way.

To protect from dust and such, we first wrapped the painting with a layer of clear plastic wrap. Then we wrapped the painting with a generous amount of bubble wrap.


One thing that Bill told me was to be sure to keep the measurements very precise so there is little to no room for the painting to move in the box. This makes sense since the less the painting can moving inside the box, the less chance it has of getting damaged during shipping.

After attaching the top panel with more screws, the crate is finished. Final touches were to add handles on the sides to help with moving and carrying the heavy thing as well as spray painting my logo on the top and sides. It should get there safe and sound, but it wouldn't hurt to cross our fingers... :)