I have spent much of my career as a professional scenic backdrop painter with Oliphant Studios in New York City. The studio provides photographers, filmmakers, fashion designers and art directors with large format paintings for studio and runway use. All work is created with fast drying acrylic paint. We staple our cotton canvas to the floor in square, gesso it multiple times with a 2' push broom and then, walking directly on the stretched canvas with stocking feet, we paint with airbrushes and large scenic bristle brushes taped to 3' bamboo sticks. Often a drop is cartooned in first with bamboo-extended charcoal using a grid system exactly the way Michangelo set up to paint the Sistine ceiling.

Once the piece is finished, we dry it with huge fans, unstaple it and roll it on to a long cardboard carpet tube, and send it out by courier. Time is as important as quality. Everything needs to happen fast and look great. There is very little time for doubt or for changes and mistakes are manipulated into something that works. The drops are used immediately and then sent back to us where they are put into our rental stock. Marc Jacobs 20' x 80' drop was probably seen for 20 minutes – the duration of a runway fashion show – and was probably only hanging for 45 minutes. It is speed painting at its very best.