Day & Nite Cleaners Building - WIP

Decided to do another "WIP" (work in progress) for my latest painting in the series.  I did a study of this nice example of Deco Streamline last year and really wanted to revisit this building.  Sadly it's presently empty and has an "Available" sign in the window.  I sure hope that someone buys this building and puts something neat in it.  It's just such a wonderful example of architecture.  It sits right on historic Route 66 at 11th and Elgin - across the street from the Warehouse Market Building.

The curved facade is flanked by tall, narrow glass block windows and features rounded green awnings and  cool neon signage over the entrance.

I challenged myself with a square format, 12 x 12" prepped mdf (for those who like a resistive surface on which to paint, it's a great, non-warping hard surface that should be gessoed in three layers with sanding in between each layer).   I really like the square format, but compositionally find it a bit daunting.  I've started with an acrylic wash of Transparent Red Ochre removing the light areas with a damp cloth.  Next I've mixed the Transparent Red Ochre and Cobalt Blue for some darker areas.  I had to stop at this point - but from studying the photo,  I can see that I'm going to adjust that strong vertical line that runs right up through the middle so as not to break the surface in half so much.

Stay tuned for more posts with updates in the days ahead.  More on the history of the building later too.