Inheritance, oil on panel
real sense of his degree and its application to real life, he moved to
Kentucky. Planting himself within a very conservative, suburban
area, he began to paint portraits of children and families to make a
living. However after five years of doing so he “didn’t want to be
limited to just painting five year olds”. So he became involved in
outdoor art festivals.
Cornell later admits that these events forced him to become a better
painter. Teaching him to work
with deadlines and pushing him Middle America, oil on panel
to find clarity in his works, he
found his focus. He soon found
an interest in large landscape
paintings.
Living in Kentucky and Kansas,
he became fascinated by the
tornados that ravaged the midwest. Originally, working with
large-scale storm paintings he
enjoyed the “quite reaction” to
these big pieces. However, if you
have taken a look at his more
recent pieces, these oversized
canvases would surprise you.
In his Pilgrimage show, most of
his works average around less
Orlando’s Art Scene, v. 1.2
than 1 foot by 1 foot. He found that by painting small, detailed
pieces, it forced the observer to look closer to the smaller picture. “I
wanted to do something that was small and intimate” says Cornell,
“I wanted others to see something huge in a smaller piece”. He has
noticed that this latest trend tends to gain more reaction, then when
he did the larger scaled pieces. However Cornell likes the idea of
exploring different ways of working and different approaches.
As he is predominately a studio
painter, Cornell is more inclined
to photograph his journey and
take these special moments with
him. However he enjoys sketching on site, as it allows him to
capture the color just right. For
his finished products, he mainly
works with oil paints, as he believes that these give him flexibility and create a “kind of depth
in the paint that you don’t get
with acrylic”.
At first glance, most of his paintings look like photographs but
as you gaze closer you see the
layers of paint used to create the
texture of shingles on the house.
You can clearly see that each
34