Andrew Spanoudakis

This first series is The Monongahela River Project. Or as a friend of mine in marketing said the "The Mon Bridges series" I approach each painting with a loose mechanical drawing of 1/3 line divisions of the paper and develop some basic shape and abstract areas in graphite, charcoal, and Prismacolor soft pencils. After I have established the basic layout I start to build color by masking areas progressively with layers and additional masking. Maintaining the concept of the rule of thirds both horizontally and vertically. These are all loosely inspired by the bridge arches and the landscape of Pittsburgh. Overall I like to let my pencil work show and continue to build with different mediums: Charcoal; graphite, Neocolor II; acrylic and colored pencil. To date, there are 14 paintings in the Mon Bridges series and I have just started the Allegheny River Project.