Hiking Elvis

Find Hiking Elvis! Last year I stretched a 22 x 30" paper on the rack, and there it sat for months on end. In December I splashed some colours around including a swath of cerulean blue, green and blue blobs, and some washes of alizarin crimson red. And there it sat for almost six months without any progress. It first occurred to me that this was to be a mountainous scene, and that it would involve Elvis, four Elvis' was the original plan. By accident I had dropped four beads of water on the washes when it was wet, and I became obsessed with the idea that they represented Elvis. At the same time I had a doodle in my lab book #22 that resembled Elvis on a mountain, and the idea started to come together (it was mistakenly labelled lab book #23 on the painting). I also worked out a few compositions in my sketchbook that would fit the background painting. Complicated path just like the painting.  

There are a lot of little symbols and jokes in this painting, the main joke turned out to be that the characters are all taking selfies! I also included the abominable snowman as I remember from the SkiFree game, and a Canadian maple leaf to remember Canadian climbers who died on Mount Everest. In the end, this painting is about the absurdity of commercialized climbing in the Himalaya's, which is currently on hold due to the pandemic. There is even a Ferris wheel, fast food restaurant and french fries strewn throughout. Hokusai's wave-drawing style was used in the foreground cliffs.

22 x 30" cold press, watercolour, 2019 - 2020

note, I went over the alizarin washes with quinacridone and pyrrole reds to make sure they are lightfast, since the beginning of 2020 I dropped alizarin from use which is a shame since it is such a powerful colour, but it fades like crazy in sunlight. Here is a crop of Hiking Elvis taking a selfie...