Completing a 12-foot-long painting: "Tropical Triptych"

By far the largest painting I’ve ever completed is my 12-foot-long “Tropical Triptych”, which took nine months to complete.

Each panel measures 4 feet tall - with the center panel being 4x5 foot, and the right panel 4x4 foot.

It’s so much fun to capture a scene across multiple panels, and I love how the large scale captures the feeling of being a part of the scene.

As this huge painting evolved, I slowly built up more detail and layers. This is an earlier stage of the left panel when I was still working on the flowers and leaves, and I gradually added in those final details and elements.

Prints of “Tropical Triptych” are available in my Etsy shop as canvas, gicleé paper prints, and greeting cards. Prints are available as individual panels, or as the whole set!

UPDATE: most recently (September 2021 - three years after completing the Tropical Triptych), I created an addition of a surfboard to the same wall!

It’s not a real surfboard, but a 4-foot sheet of plywood I cut and sanded into the shape of a surfboard. I designed the surfboard to tie into the red and yellow of the sign in the triptych, and I love how the surfboard complements the triptych!

I painted the surfboard in one weekend at Kirkland Summerfest in August 2021, while painting live in front of my booth.

A closeup of the finished surfboard, resembling the triptych’s flowers and leaves!