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The Seattle Prize · 2025–26 fellows

Posts

147 posts from the studios this year, newest first. Scroll back in time; tap a post to open it.

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May 20261 post

Tenaya SimsMay 19, 2026

Overpainting stage of the torso- I usually take this to about 80% completion, leaving room for subtle color glazes and adjustments.Flight of Shadow · the making →

February 20261 post

Tenaya SimsFeb 13, 2026

Moving on to the overpainting stage of the face: placing paint “tiles” over the underpainting’s structure, then gently blending them along the direction of the form.Flight of Shadow · the making →

January 20262 posts

Progress on Flight of Shadow

Tenaya SimsJan 29, 2026

Onto the primary pass of the drapery and hands. I generally try take this stage to about 75%, leaving room for glazes and adjustments in the upper layers. I painted the surrounding sky at the same time to work wet-into-wet edges (harsh edges can sometimes be a pain to deal with once dry).Flight of Shadow · the making →

Tenaya SimsJan 21, 2026

Working on the base layer of the hair. It’s one of my favorite subjects to paint, since it allows for play with rhythms, swoops, and swooshes within the larger compositional theme. I like to bring it to about 80% finish on the main pass so I can work wet-into-wet on the edges, then reserve the remaining details for a final pass.Flight of Shadow · the making →

December 20251 post

Progress on Flight of Shadow

Tenaya SimsDec 15, 2025

Now that all the prep work is finished, it’s on to the underpainting. There are many ways to approach this stage, and I don’t always handle it the same way. Sometimes I’ll start with a single-tone wipe-out and then move directly into full-color overpainting. Other times I use an ébauche approach, washing in the main color relationships from the start. For this particular painting, I’m working with a two-stage underpainting: first a wipe-out, followed by a selective “grisaille.” I use the term grisaille loosely here, since it isn’t strictly black and white—which would push the painting too cool for what comes next. Instead, the “gray” passages are built from mixtures of umbers, raw sienna, and white, which should be more suitable for the color layers to follow.Flight of Shadow · the making →

November 20252 posts

Progress on Flight of Shadow

Tenaya SimsNov 26, 2025

Almost finished with the transfer process for the new painting. Before I ventured into classical painting, I came from the world of comics and graphic novels, and this stage always reminds me inking over a pencil draft of a page.Flight of Shadow · the making →

Progress on Flight of Shadow

Tenaya SimsNov 5, 2025

Some exploratory studies and roughs, branching in different directions from the same root theme...stay tuned for which grow int a fully fledged painting.Flight of Shadow · the making →

Showing 7 posts by Tenaya SimsSee everyone's →

Posts | Seattle Prize