Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Challenge: Paint a Gas Station in B&W

If you're eager to get going with gouache, why not join this contest?

The challenge is to paint a gas station in black and white gouache on location. 

Gas Pump, gouache, by Thomas Kinkade, 1981
For inspiration, here's one of my favorite little paintings. If you've never seen this image before, it might surprise you that it was painted by Thomas Kinkade, better known for his prints of glowing cottages. When I knew him, it was long before he was "The Painter of Light." In addition to working as background painters, we traveled all over the country doing work for the book we co-wrote called The Artist's Guide to Sketching.

He painted the gas pump when that pump design was new, and he wanted to paint it realistically, but subtly push the idea that it looked like a weird robot alien.

Three Rules
1. Just black and white, no other colors, and it must be regular gouache or "acryla" gouache.

2. You can be inside or outside the station. You can show a view of the convenience store or the mechanic's shop or the street scene around the station. If you don't want to do a wide shot, you can focus in on details like signage, soda machine, pumps or cars. It can be a busy station or an abandoned one. But somehow it must be evident that it's set in a gas station.

3. It must be painted on location and it must be a new painting done for this contest. In addition to a scan of the final painting, your entry must include a photo of you with your set-up and the painting in progress.

Prizes
I'll pick one Grand Prize and three Honorable Mentions. All four winners receive a highly coveted "Department of Art" embroidered patch. In addition, the Grand Prize winner receives a First Day Cover of the Australian dinosaur stamps with a hand-drawn remarque. The top 10 entries will be published on GurneyJourney, and I'll try to figure a way to upload all the entries on another site.

Deadline
It's free to enter. The deadline is the end of Monday, July 20 at midnight. Winners will be announced July 22. 

How to Enter
Email your two files (painting and photo of you doing the painting) to gurneyjourney (at) gmail, subject line "GAS STATION." The files must be no larger than 700px in any dimension. Or send me a link to a file-hosting site where your image can easily be accessed.
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Edit: Results of the Gas Station Challenge

5 comments:

Krystal Pistol said...

I wanted to know the deadline hour? Is it a typical 12:00 pm est on the 20th of July?

James Gurney said...


Midnight at the end of Monday.

Al Granberg said...

Hi James -- Should the images of the painting and equipment on location be sent together or separately? Thank you.

Al Granberg said...

Hi James -- Should the images of the painting and equipment on location be sent together or separately? Thank you.

Sherry Schmidt said...

Somehow missed this until 7/20! Would have loved to try a painting. Maybe you'll have another gouache event. :-)