Press for Royal's Commission

Kansas City Star clipping. Photos by John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star
These are press photos taken by The Star prior opening day of the Royal Stadium this season in early April.


Photos were featured in the Local Section of The Star and Ink Magazine (4.02.09)

Learn to paint with Allan Chow

LEARN TO PAINT WITH ALLAN CHOW!!!!!!!!
Place: ARTICHOKES (10557 Mission Rd, Kansas)
When: THURSDAYS- May 14th, 21st, 28th (Three week class)
Time: 10.00am - 1.00pm
Class Fees: $205 + tax (9 hours of instruction)
Maximum students: 12
Materials: Artichokes provided all art supplies.
TO SIGN UP: http://www.artichokeskc.com/ClassSchedule027006661class_details.htm

For more information visit: www.artichokeskc.com or call 913.322.9481

Objective:
This is your chance to overcome your fears of oil painting or painting in general. I am here to make sure you have FUN while learning how to paint with oils using either brushes, palette knife, stick, fingers.....whatever fancy you. In three weeks, you will learn how to compose a drawing, mix colors and finish a painting with my guidance. Sign up today before spaces are filled!!!!

May 14th:
FUN FUN FUN Exercises to help you take control of Palette Knife painting.

May 21st:
Understanding Oil Paints and Color Mixing.

May 28th:
The Art of layering paint and finishing a painting.


Artist Bio:
Allan Chow’s oil paintings are in several corporate and civic collections, including H&R Block, the Overland Park Convention Center, the Kauffman Foundation, Russell Stover Candies, and the University of Kansas Hospital. Private Collectors range from Kansas City, to Seattle, to Santa Barbara and Hong Kong. Allan has received awards from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, New York and Korea, and has been featured in the Kansas City Star on four separate occasions.

Represented by the Leopold Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri and Strecker Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas; Allan is a highly regarded painter of abstracted landscapes and of the Kansas City Skyline. In addition, Allan’s career has now branched out to include the San Francisco market.

Allan paints with a palette knife, normally with the application of a thick impasto. It is for the sophistication of his style, and the passion with which he paints, that he has established a national following.

For more samples of his work, please visit www.allanchow.com

Prairie Fire 2009

As serene as this image looks. This is exactly the kind of peacefulness you will experience in the Prairie Hills.


Here are the students this year. Majority photographers and a few drawers and painters.


We visited a National Reserve where they burnt some grass for us to observe. An amazing view and experience. This is done every year to rejuvenate the land and new grass will grow back even stronger.



Burning and Spreading.


Heres another with students excited to be there and scrambling trying to get a good shot of the fire.


Thought this was cool! Looked to me like Yin & Yang.


Smoke is headed their way!


Beautiful closeup of flames


Love the vertical elements in this picture.


Grass is coming back!!!!


Here is the land.

Royal's Commission - Final Week

Here is the painting about 99% done. As the painting dry, I usually continue to work on it and constantly finding ways to make it better. Hopefully I will be able to take one more shot of the final product before it goes up at the Stadium (Entrance of the Crown Club.)


Believe it or not, I haven't found a single reference of Brett's face visible in this exact time of the celebration right before the infamous hug. Even though there were images of their faces in various perspective, this painting will provide the Royals something special. I was working on 8 different photographs to capture Brett's face in this composition. I think it works.


I am almost there! George Brett's face was the last piece of the puzzle.

Royal's Commission - Week Two

As you can see, I am on the roll at this point. I spent much time working on the jerseys and players' faces/likeness. I should only have a few more days before I stop working on it and allow it to dry. Delivering a wet painting is never a good idea.


I am experimenting painting one of the players green as their first layer of color. By the end of the day I decided on Blue instead. For some reason my instincts told me so and they are usually right.


Working on the field. I decided to leave the players the second last challenge to tackle. My intention is to make sure that the paint of the grass is still wet while I work on the players. This allows me to blend the edges of the players with the grass. Not quite sure why I do this but it works. As long as the result is good, I will continue to do it.


Day 7, This stage took me two days to fill with color. The fans are finally starting to take shape. I probably still have another few hours.


Day 6

Royal's Commission - Week One

Things are going great at this point. The first layers are starting to fill the entire canvas. Working in the gallery is a unique experience. Working without a television is hard to get use to but it helps me focus. Especially I only have a few weeks to finish, I most definitely needed the discipline.



It feels good to finally have paint on the canvas. I usually start with the darkest value.



Here I am working on the stands. I am constantly envisioning how the final product looks like. On this day, I spent about the first 4 hours staring at a blank canvas.
Although I didn't get as much done as I would like, I understand it is part of the process. I just needed to go with the flow.


I have fast forward to DAY 3. After transferring my drawing, I started to apply paint to first establish VALUE and TEXTURE. Canvas is 8 feet by 5 feet, one of the biggest I have painted in a long time.e.

Royal Commission Sketch Phase

Here is the sketch they approved. I am extremely excited to get started. The next step is to project my drawing on the canvas and the tracing begins. I decided tracing my drawing will be most efficient and the best way to preserve my original drawing.


Here is week two during sketch stages.


Will be finalizing last two sketches to be approved by the client before I transfer the final sketch onto the canvas.