The Making of the “Winter Salt Lake City, Utah Temple” Acrylic Painting
Salt Lake City Temple Painting
Winter Salt Lake City, Utah Temple was an awesome challenge to paint. Previous to this painting, the largest piece I had done was the Autumn Salt Lake City, Utah Temple which was 2 feet high and 3 feet wide. This winter painting was exactly double the size, measuring 4 feet high and 6 feet wide.
I went to the local Michaels, as it is the only art shop in my city, but I couldn’t find a 48×72 inch canvas! The largest they had was a 48×60. I pressed the help button in the art section hoping that I would be able to order one but unfortunately Michaels does not even make canvases that big.
I went online when I got home to see what I could find. When I lived in Edmonton I had made purchases at the Deserres art store so I went to their website hoping they had the right size. Luckily they did so I made the order.
I knew the canvas was going to be big, but I really wasn’t ready for how big it was actually going to be. It made the other Temple painting look tiny.
The First Steps In The Painting of the Salt Lake Temple
The last painting I did was the autumn painting, so it was full of warm colours. Beautiful reds and oranges. This painting, however, was going to be a winter scene full of much cooler colours. This meant a switch in tones. I purchased Cobalt Blue paint for the sky, and a Bone (or Ivory) Black instead of using the Mars black which I already had.
The first step I did was to measure and draw where the temple and horizon line would be. I would eventually overlap the temple lines a little with the sky but this made it so I wouldn’t have to paint the whole middle section which would save some paint. This is especially useful for a canvas this size.
Then I moved on to the sky using Cobalt Blue, Titanium White, and a little Bone Black. It was fun to make big brush strokes and work on a sky this big. I learned quickly that I would have to take many steps back from the canvas to make sure my perspective wasn’t off from being up close so much.
After the sky, I did some background trees. Some of these trees would end up being behind the temple, that is why I wanted to paint them first. I did a layer of burnt umber mixed with bone black. Then mixed in a lighter brown to do some highlights. And then I finished them off with some white to highlight the snow on the trees.
From there I did the first layer of the wall that goes around the temple. This was done mostly with Titanium White, Bone Black, and a little Burnt Siena in the sunnier spots.
Moving On to Painting The Temple
I then moved to the temple. I wanted this piece to be pretty precise so I did a lot of measuring and drawing before I started actually painting. I also wanted there to be texture on the temple when I was painting so I mixed up some gray with Titanium White and Bone Black, and put some Golden Soft Gel in it to thicken it up even more. Then I used a #1 round brush to paint it on. Using a small brush forced me to do smaller strokes but gave each stroke a lot of texture which really shows up in the painting. You can run your hand across the temple and feel the texture popping out.
I worked from left to right across the temple, drawing and then painting as I went. I saved some of the detail work, such as the arches, windows, and doors until later. Then the gold part, and the spires until after I was finished painting everything else.
Painting The Foreground Of The Salt Lake Temple
When the temple was done, I filled in the spaces right beside the temple, then moved to the front.
At first, I thought the front was going to be easy compared to the temple itself, but it proposed new challenges. The fountain in front had to reflect what was behind in a way that was clear but still obviously a reflection. I wanted things to be symmetrical but slightly different to make them more real.
I started with the trees along the front of the wall, doing them in the same fashion as the ones behind with just lighter browns in them. I also did the back four lamps. Then I moved on to the fountain. With the fountain complete it was then easier to outline the pathways around it and fill those in. From there I filled in the snow in the garden areas, did the pine tree on the right, painted the front four lamps, and then finished off with the front bushes and trees.
With that complete, I could now take on the final three steps, the spires, the gold plate, and Angel Moroni. The spires and Angel Moroni actually went very smoothly. It was the gold plate that caused some struggle. It was hard to get the right gold colour that I wanted in order to make it stand out but not be overwhelming. And then writing some of the words on it was not easy. After a few trial and errors, and a night of sleeping on it, I finally got it how I wanted it to.
Finishing Touches
Acrylic paint does dry very quickly but it is still good to let a finished painting sit for a day or two before varnishing. I have yet to varnish it but I will be finishing it with a satin varnish.
To ship it, I will be rolling to it and shipping it in a very large tube.
If you have any questions about the materials used, steps I took, or if you would like a painting like this done for yourself, just get in contact with me!
To see close-up photos of the painting just head over to the product page Winter Salt Lake City, Utah Temple.
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