Provincetown, Massachusetts. This small town on the very tip of Cape Cod is one of those places that is not easy to describe but impossible to forget. The draw for me as an artist is the concentration of art galleries that line Commercial Street. You can't go more than 20 feet without hitting another one. 

One of the most recognizable buildings in this town is the Lobster Pot restaurant. This iconic landmark is captured by thousands of artists and photographers each year and on this trip, I knew that it was my turn.

I have found an incredibly versatile paint in Createx Wicked Colors . While this paint is specifically formulated as an airbrush paint, I find it to have exceptional qualities when applied with traditional paint brushes. For nearly all of my paint brush work, I use the Winsor & Newton Series 7 watercolor brush, size 0. This incredible brush allows me to capture even the smallest details. The airbrush that I used for this painting is my Iwata Micron B. As far as atomization and control, there are few, if any airbrushes that can keep up with this superbrush.

In setting up the composition for this painting, I felt that having a few guidelines to work around would make a good challenge. First, it had to be a miniature painting. The boldness of the iconic neon sign would play perfectly into the small format. Second, the painting still needed to have a great sense of depth. This sense of depth was a hinge for the composition. The natural curve of the sign would be a great way to pull the viewer into the piece and the glowing neon arrow sealed that. 

Beyond that I was fascinated with the extreme distance that renaissance artists such as DaVinci  would use to create massive depth in very focused areas. The incredible distance of the background in the Mona Lisa is a prime example of this. 

The bottom right corner of this painting would be where I planned on using that extreme distance. This would also be a great spot to introduce some atmospheric perspective. That soft feeling of haze sets the background off in the distance. Once that was set, it was on to the neon. The base color for the tubes is a very pale orange. This will ultimately be the lightest color in the lit tube.

From there, the orange is tinted with a very vibrant transparent red. This alone makes the tube seem as if it is glowing.

What really adds the final sense of realism to the neon is the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows.

Once the painting was completed, it headed out to get clear coated. The paint I use is designed to have this clear coat applied and the result is an amazing depth in the color and clarity in the detail.

Finally the hand made, solid cherry frame. I have found that nothing showcases these small paintings as a simple but elegant shadowbox frame. Because there were no commercially available frames that matched the quality that I needed, I ended up commissioning some incredible local woodworkers to make my frames. 

 One of the great things about these frames is that it gives me an opportunity to tie the backdrop into the painting. In this case, it is collected sand from the beach directly behind the restaurant.

Finally the title, 'Full Circle'. This title came from a contest that I ran on my Instagram page leahyairbrush. The winner was the very talented photographer/artist Barbi Fotland. Without knowing my personal story, she really picked the perfect title. Early in 2016, I was hospitalized with a stomach infection that kept me sidelined for months. Once I was able to get back to the studio, this painting was one of the first that I was able to finish. It really brought me full circle.

Full Circle went on to win the Grand Prize in the 2018 South Shore Art Center's Members show in Cohasset, Massachusetts.