Kelly and I first saw James’ art at the Zeitgeist-hosted show at the Terrazzo luxury condominiums.  We were both blown away when we  saw his art and tried to figure out how we could get some of it in our living room(still trying to figure that out).   About a month later we met James at a meeting for Open Lot, the artist collective and studio space my wife and I are involved in.  So now his studio is right next to Kelly’s and he is one of our best friends!!  We call him Jamesies.  This weekend I went down to Zeitgeist Art Gallery to document a few of his paintings for a Nashville Association of Art Dealers brochure.  I’m also mixing in some pictures I took of James at Open Lot.

This painting is probably 10 or 12 feet wide. Huge!!!

For all you photographers, this is the setup I used:  Two Alien Bee 1600’s with soft boxes triggered with Cybersyncs.  I started at 45 degree angles on either side and found that I needed to move out to more like 30 degrees to avoid reflection on the oil.  The black painting may have been even further out because it was especially prone to reflection.  I used a measuring tape to make sure the lights were as symmetric as possible.  Also on the black painting I decided to tether my D700 to my computer using a plug-in I found for Lightroom.  It was really helpful for work like this where balanced lighting and focus are especially important.

admin Commercial, Photography