How long does it take to make a painting?

Everything Is There 1, Brooke Lanier, Oil on canvas, 36 x 60 inches

How Long Did It Take to Make This Painting?

People often ask me how long it takes me to make a painting. That’s a tricky question. While I was working on this one, which is 3 x 5 feet, I kept noticing more and more vestiges of other things I’ve made for the past 15+ years. I’ve been painting since I was a little kid, so it probably goes back further than that. This is a visual genealogy of how this particular painting came to be. Unfortunately, I can’t include the first image in this progression because it is documented in slide form and doesn’t exist on the internet. Kids these days wouldn’t understand. You’ll have to take my word for it. I made it in 2001.

I made a lot of things between 2001 and 2003, but I was an undergraduate at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and most of my earlier paintings were so bad we don’t need to talk about them.

“Capillary Exchange I” ink drawing on vintage x-ray light box, 2006, available.

“I stopped calling my friends because they bored me.” 2007. Oil on canvas, I 4 x 6 feet. The text is written in Braille. Available for purchase.

“Tributary I” monotype screenprint and thread on panel, 6″ x 6″, 2008. Private collection. Other works in this series available.

“Portrait of Hudson” 40″ x 40″ mixed media, 2009. Private collection

“Free” oil on canvas, 36″ x 60″, 2011. Private collection.

Other work in this series available.

“The Passthrough.” oil on canvas, 91″ x 44″, 2014. Collection of the Honeywell corporation.

“Weedscape 1” 60″ x 36″ oil on canvas, 2015. Available for purchase.

“Submerged 2,” Oil on panel, 18″ x 24″ 2016. Available for purchase.

… and that brings us to this painting. There were many, many other things that didn’t get included in this list. I also had to do a lot of on-site staring, photography, and painting on location before I got to the point where I wanted to stretch and prime a canvas.
I address all the prep work and more parts-and-labor issues in my blog post “A Sandwich That Would Kill You: The Reasons Paintings Are So Expensive.”This may or may not answer the question of how long it takes to make a painting, but hopefully it gives you some insight into my process.