The Painting Process

When working on stone or concrete surfaces, and in the KEIM mineral products rather than traditional paint, the process is laborious and requires careful preparation of the work surface. The subjects must also be carefully planned, as the KEIM pallette of inorganic pigments is more restrictive than, say, acrylics. This careful planning and preparation by AlbanyMural results in public art that will be enjoyed by viewers for a century or more.

Universal Render is applied as the ideal base material for the KEIM paints. It is applied in two coats: a coarse undercoat with fiberglass webbing, and a fine top coat suitable for painting detailed work. The Universal Render helps to ensure the longevity of the painting.

Because KEIM paint coats interact with each successive layer of paint, it is important to mask off areas of the work until they are ready to receive their own individual colors.

We start with the background and then add the objects that are situated in the middle and then the front picture planes of the painting. At the completion of Stage Three we are ready to begin painting the still life objects.

This is the most traditional stage of the painting. Here we use layers and washes of color to create the paintings of the objects in the still life. At the completion of Stage Four we have a completed painting of a still life composition.

In Stage Five we fine tune the use of color, light and shadow to take the still life painting created in Stage Four and transform it into a trompe l'oeil work in which the objects no longer appear to be painted. At the completion of Stage Five, the work has changed personality from a painting into a niche containing real objects.