Soon after her first meeting with Audubon in 1831, Maria, "a promising artist," is painting "backgrounds" of plant and insect life for his birds.
After short stints at the University of California at Berkeley and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, he landed briefly in Hollywood, painting backgrounds for an animated film called "Fire and Ice," directed by Ralph Bakshi.
Having designed matte painting backgrounds for other films, including Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer, de Salvatore was prepared for the rigorous, sometimes repetitive work that comes with such detailed set design.
The best is a 1923 outdoor bather, drying her hair with a white towel, standing against a verdant, brushily painted background.
Each flickering shadow, oil painted background, felt garment, quivering hand, and sound had to be created from scratch.
The interactive nature of the painted background mixed with proto-religious imagery almost reminds us of Marco Brambilla's Creation video series.
The survey runs from Carleton E. Watkins 1897 landscape, "Cape Horn, Columbia River," to Don Worth's recent, richly patterned still life blending a Matisse poster with a similarly painted background.
Another approach is painting the entire bottle, then gluing the gems and other decorations onto the painted background.
