ArtistsNetwork.com 65Bayalis says. “I’ve often gotten reactions from viewers who were
sure that I had painted the scene in their hometown.”
In his interpretations of city and suburban life, Bayalis
embraces what he calls “the disappearing American land-
scape”—pieces of popular culture and signs of the present day
that may be gone tomorrow. For example, the World Liquors
store in Central Avenue at Dusk (at left) was sold and demolished
shortly after Bayalis completed the painting. He’s also drawn to
specii c lighting scenarios related to the time of day and the
weather. “h ese are situations we can all relate to, sometimes
more subconsciously,” the artist says.
A Balance of Tight and Loose
Solid planning is crucial to Bayalis because it allows him the
freedom to make changes later. He develops a workable photo
composite on his computer, leaving out distractions that inter-
rupt the composition’s unity, but largely aiming to paint things
as they are.
He then transfers a printout, scaled up to the size of the
painting, to hot-pressed paper. He prefers this surface partly for
the ease of drawing crisp detail on it, a discovery he made when
attempting to add crossword puzzles and other lettering to one
of his still life paintings. “I transfer the basic image by toning
the back of the photo with graphite and then redrawing over it
onto the watercolor paper to pick up essential elements,” Bayalis
says. “I add more details as needed before starting to paint.”
Toolkit
SURFACE
Bayalis prefers Arches
hot-pressed watercolor
paper. “I’ve got to use
300 pound,” he says,
“because it’s thick
enough that I can really
soak it and saturate it
with layers of color. My
fog paintings require
a lot of wetting. They’re
soaked with water and
carefully layered to get
those irregularities
I want in the sky, and
even in the foreground.”PAINTS
Bayalis likes Sennelier’s
tube watercolors for
their density. “Their
warm colors, in partic-
ular, are rich and
bright.” He also uses
Holbein and Winsor &
Newton, especially
cooler hues such as
cerulean blue, manga-
nese blue and violet.
Green tube colors run
the risk of appearing
too artificial in a land-
scape painting, Bayalis
says, so he rarely uses
them alone. “I almost
always use a yellow hue
to begin, and then I mix
blue or green into it.”BRUSHES
“I use a combination
of kolinsky and
synthetic brushes,”
Bayalis says. “The
synthetics are excellent
for lettering, edging
and detailing.”MISCELLANEOUS
“The best masking
solution I’ve found is
made by Sennelier,”
the artist says.