Submerged Gothic

Lindsey Burrows at The American Interest got in touch with me looking for an image to convey the current state of the real estate industry. She and her colleagues were pretty set on a parody of Grant Wood's American Gothic, but underwater. I committed to adding my name to the list of artist's who've riffed on that painting (CF Payne, Mark Fredrickson, and a slew of Mad magazine guys are darn good company). 

Conveying the sense of light streaming through water was perhaps the biggest challenge and the most enjoyable part of this painting. I gathered a bunch of reference, only a fraction shown here, and leaned hard on James Gurney's Color and Light to figure everything out.  And, my buddy Lars's kraken painting (above right) was a badass guide as well.

In other news, I recently found out my literate squid painting created for Tor.com's short story "Ch-ch-changes" by Michael Bishop was accepted to Spectrum 19! Huzzah!

Thanks for reading,
Scott