Painting larger than life

Staff Writer

The Chronicle Express

This photo of the painting was taken by 13-year-old Josh Baxter from a plane flown by his father, Eric.

Dozens of artists worked together July 25 at the Penn Yan Presbyterian Church to complete a giant painting depicting a photograph from the early 1900s.

The original black and white photo was taken from a rowboat by Isabelle Drake. Artist Robert Gillespie used that photo as the basis for a recent painting, and because of his experience with large format work, decided to spearhead a group effort to create this 10,000 sq. ft. artwork in the church parking lot.

He said it took about 4 and a half hours to complete using a grid and dry tempera paints.

Gillespie is looking into having the painting documented as a world record.

The artists began the project working on the steamer, and then worked out to the edges of the grid.