Las Vegas Showgirls

I'm starting a new series of six foot paintings called Las Vegas Showgirls.  This is going to be an exciting and fun project.  I'm working with Lou Anne Harrison Chessik, former Las Vegas Showgirl and now historian and expert about the history of showgirls and the shows and venues in Las Vegas. She is developing an exhibition which will feature paintings of showgirls by various professional artists, displays of show girl costumes, videos and photographs from the early days of the Las Vegas shows up to the present.  The show will be traveling to Los Angeles, London and Paris.  My work will create  impressions of the glamour, beauty and history of that era and will travel with the show.

I'm attempting to do something new with this project. I'll be videotaping the entire process from meetings with Lou Anne and learning about the various shows, selecting images from old photos and film footage, laying-out the paintings, sketching images on canvas and then painting the pieces in oil.  I'll be posting small video clips on YouTube frequently as the paintings progress. We just completed our first interviews with Lou Anne... she even put on a showgirl costume for us. I'll be posting the first clips this week. I hope it'll be fun and interesting to follow along. You can find me on YouTube at JerryBlankman.  Give me a view and you'll see how I create a painting.