Skip to content • Skip to gallery information

Quent Cordair Fine Art

Click to chat with
a gallery representative
« First Heat: Step 19
Icarus: Step 1 »

First Heat: Step 20

First Heat

As you can see, this is truly a superior image to those I was able to capture with my digital camera. The colors here are very good, but there are many subtleties of the original painting that will never show up in a photograph. That being said, this is about as good as it will get on a computer screen. This image is large enough that I did not feel it necessary to include any detail shots.

Now that the painting is complete, and a good image of it is available for your scrutiny, I thought it would be appropriate to make some final comments. As has been discussed earlier in this forum, and as will be apparent to anyone familiar with the novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand, this painting is based on and was inspired by the character of Henry Rearden, an innovator in the science of metallurgy and the owner of a large steel company. I want to stress that this is not intended no be an illustration from the novel, but a separate piece of artwork on the same theme of individual achievement.

This painting has come a long way compositionally from its origins as an idea for a cover illustration for the book, and has presented a number of new challenges for me as an aspiring classical/romantic realist painter. The composition has required a considerable amount of interpretation on my part due to the poor quality of available reference material, and the complexity of the unique lighting in the piece. Now that the painting is finished, I am pleased to say that the results have exceeded my own expectation, especially with regard to the lighting effects and the color scheme of the piece. As with any interpretation of an abstract work of literary artistic greatness such as ‘Atlas Shrugged’ there are bound to be many people who have differing views regarding many aspects of this painting, and indeed, some of these differing views have already been expressed as comments in this forum. As an artist I can only present this representation of my own vision of individual achievement and greatness, and hope that those who view it find it inspiring. I appreciate all of the comments and questions that have been sent in, and I hope that my commentary and responses have been interesting and instructive. Thank you for visiting the ‘Artist’s Studio’ and please continue to check in on the latest works of art being produced here by myself and the other artists. I will be happy to address any last comments and questions regarding this or any of my paintings as you may have them.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2005 at 10:43 am and is filed under First Heat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “First Heat: Step 20”

  1. Mark Says:
    March 17th, 2005 at 3:00 pm

    Wow. Plain and simple. Wow. On the comment from the marine, all of whom I greatly respect, regarding Rearden’s posture: It seems to me that this posture is not sloppy or “slouchy,” but is instead the kind of posture a man might assume who is infinitely confident that all his hard work is coming to fruition just now. It’s going to work, that first pour. Rearden has done all he can do; now he relaxes and savors the moment. That’s what is captured here, a moment of supreme confidence. That’s how I see it anyway. Thanks again Bryan for sharing your work along the way. Brilliant.

  2. Meenal Pai Says:
    March 17th, 2005 at 5:45 pm

    Top job! Mr.Larsen. Thank you very much…again! :)

Leave a Reply

About Bryan Larsen ~

Bryan Larsen

"I was born on February 12, 1975, and have been drawing as long as I can remember. By the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be an artist, although at the time I didn't have a clear idea of how exactly I would use my talents to make a living.

"As I continued studying art, I began to suspect that fine visual art was dead. No one seemed interested in teaching students how to draw well, or paint well. More often than not, my own skills exceeded those of my instructors.

"The only field left that seemed to require good drawing, painting, and compositional skills was illustration, and therefore I began studying illustration at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. I became even more convinced that I had made the right decision in staying away from fine art as I endured course after course of required "drawing" and "painting" classes in which instructors required me to draw with "less focus", or use ridiculous materials such as shellac, glue, sand, salt, etc.

"My second year at Utah State, I met Damon Denys. In discussing Art with him I realized that there were other people who believed that technique and subject matter were indispensable components of any work of art. I then decided that I would work to develop my own painting skills with the purpose of creating artwork that I considered worthy of being called Fine Art.

"Since that time, I have studied on my own: Drawing from live models to learn the human form, studying proper painting techniques from any source I could find ample reason to trust, and developing a philosophy of Art based on reason, and life on earth.

"My goal is to portray the heroic and romantic in human nature and human achievement in a realistic style and a modern setting. I place particular emphasis on composition, technique, realistic detail, proper craftsmanship and consistency of style."